OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 201, 16 October 1996

HUNGARY'S JUNIOR COALITION PARTY LEADER OFFERS RESIGNATION. After
revelations that an official of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ)
was implicated in the country's recent privatization scandal, party
leader Ivan Peto offered his resignation but was asked by the party's
main executive body to stay, Hungarian media reported on 16 October.
Peto said he assumes political responsibility for the activity of the
implicated party member, Barnabas Bernhardt, who was on the party's
National Council and the board of directors of a company that benefited
financially from the state privatization agency's controversial payments
to a consultant at the center of the privatization scandal. Another Free
Democrat was among the former members of the agency's board of directors
who were all dismissed over the affair. Meanwhile, another SZDSZ member
resigned from his parliamentary seat, attributing his move to
frustration over the privatization scandal and the delay in passing a
law to regulate conflicts of interest for deputies. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Tom Warner