PRESIDENT Franjo Tudjman of Croatia has a problem with free elections: he increasingly loses them. Having lost the game, he then tries to move the goalposts and demand a replay, using gerrymanders, boycotts, decrees and strong arm tactics to reverse the defeat.
Last October, his ruling Croatian Democratic Union (CDU) lost the local elections in Zagreb. Ever since, the capital's administration has been paralysed by Mr Tudjman's refusal to accept an position mayor.
Mostar, the divided Herze capital, his local proxies had boycotted that benighted city's functioning since the Tudjman party lost the European Union organised election at the end of June.
This has produced a crisis which, unless yesterday's last ditch proposal bears fruit, could spell the end of two years of EU administration at the centre of the Croat Muslim battlefield.
Over the past three years, the extremist Croats who run the bigger, western side of Mostar have deployed siege, ethnic cleansing, gangsterism and terror to keep the city the capital of a separate Croatian mini state.
They have defied last year's Dayton accords which brought relative peace to Bosnia, violently attacked the EU team trying to reintegrate the city, and now refuse to accept an election result that gave the main Muslim party 21 seats on the city council to the CDU's 16.
Mr Tudjman, as ever, finds himself manoeuvring between international pressure to lean on his Mostar recalcitrants and his domestic hard line constituency proclaiming `No surrender'.
On Friday in Washington, Mr Tudjman had soothing words for President Bill Clinton on a Mostar deal. But a few days earlier in the Adriatic port of Split he breathed nationalist fire in a speech to his party's youth wing.
His moderate foreign minister, Mr Mate Granic, has just offered to resign over Mostar, and Croatian separatism in Bosnia.
He has also been complaining about how reluctant the Tudjman administration appears to be to turn over Dario Kordic, who has been indicted for war crimes by the Hague Tribunal.
In 1993, Mr Kordic spearheaded the Croatian war against Bosnia's Muslims. The Croats kicked all Muslims out of west Mostar and then for 10 months shelled the Muslim east Mostar redoubt.
This war within a war was ended by the US brokered Muslim Croat federation being established in March, 1994. Lord Owen, as mediator, gained Mr Tudjman's assent to a two year EU administration of the city.
Hans Koschnick, the retired Social Democrat mayor of Bremen, was asked by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to head the EU team. He spent a gruelling 20 months there until quitting in disgust at the Croats, the EU and the Germans in March.
At the beginning of the year, Mr Koschnick finally unveiled his blueprint for reintegrating the divided city. In addition to three Muslim and three Croat districts, the plan envisaged a common, integrated city centre area.
In February, as the plan was to be implemented, a Croatian mob attacked Mr Koschnick and his entourage. They fired shots and beat his armoured car with sledgehammers.
He was then summoned to a meeting in Italy of EU foreign ministers which failed to support the crucial elements of his plan.
He cited that lack of support as "the last straw" in persuading him to resign. He accused Germany of appeasing Croatian nationalism and sacrificing the EU plan.