"The HDZ Court unanimously accepted his appeal and allowed Rosin to return to the HDZ," the president of the HDZ High Court of Honor, Florijan Boras, told the press.

"We don't understand the reasons why Mr Rosin was expelled. The explanation said he gave an interview to the Nacional weekly and that he was expelled," Boras said adding that the court asked for the minutes, but never received it which is why the court did not uphold the decision of the HDZ Split-Dalmatia County Committee on expunging Rosin, perceived as a close friend of former Prime Minister and HDZ leader Ivo Sanader, from the party membership.

The High Court of Honour today also considered several requests for establishing whether some HDZ members had been admitted to the party in accordance with the HDZ statute.

In this context, Boras said that the court had not received any complaint about Tomislav Karamarko's membership in the party.

Karamarko, who had not renewed his HDZ membership since 2002, was given the HDZ membership card by the HDZ president Jadranka Kosor a few months ago. His HDZ membership was challenged in some media reports after he announced his candidacy for the new HDZ leader.

Intra-party elections in the HDZ started on 11 February and will last until early May, the deadline for local branches to elect delegates for the HDZ election convention, set for 20 May, when the HDZ is expected to elect the new leadership.

Over the past several weeks, some elections of members of local HDZ branches have been marked with minor incidents, reflecting tensions in the run-up to the election convention.