"Elections are contests in rigging". (Velizar Radonjić)
The elections in Podgorica show that political dynamics in Montenegro have gained momentum, but also that bad manners are still a favorite means of winning votes! Our political culture will have to wait for some more recent time to get election campaigns that exude tolerance and creativity.
At the beginning, everything seen in Podgorica indicates that such an important political event should not have been entered into with the existing election system, as well as that after September 29 there will be room to challenge the legitimacy of the results of these extraordinary local elections. The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption added fuel to the fire of the Podgorica elections with its inert decision-making.
Even a cursory reading of the list for councilors of the capital shows that the candidates are MPs and state officials who will not remain long in the future composition of the local parliament, but their places will be filled by "hidden" candidates, among whom there are also those who are unknown even to the assemblies of tenants of buildings in by which they live. Of course, a very large number of candidates for councilors come from the ranks of civil servants and employees, so this is the best confirmation that the parties in power have very well accepted the system of partitocracy, which they once, during their opposition status, fiercely criticized!
An aggressive official campaign, in which the President of Montenegro is directly involved, will not only significantly complicate the very certain negotiations on the formation of the future city administration, but will also open some new political hotspots in Montenegro. On the other hand, numerous examples of arrogant use of public resources, both from the state and local level, as well as the abuse of public authority will fill the media columns in the upcoming period and attract the interest of the prosecution. In the eventual blaze of Pyrrhic victory, some of the parties that are part of the current Government of Montenegro will have to determine or condemn the actions of some of their prominent members!
Although it is known that political parties in the pre-election campaign should not promise projects that are not implementable in practice, as well as projects whose possible implementation could threaten the stability of public finances, nevertheless the pre-election rhetoric in Podgorica is full of such announcements! Even more, the pompous announcement about the construction of a new settlement on Velje brdo has in its content an open intention to violate valid regulations and rules of the profession. When in a country that has a big problem with illegal construction, even during the pre-election campaign for the capital city, at a press conference you listen to the Prime Minister of Montenegro and his Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property calling a project like this "a Montenegrin dream". , and you also know that the application of the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Buildings is not appropriate and that it is largely implemented through transitional legal solutions, then you must suspect political criminality.
In legal theory, the understanding of political criminality first starts from objective criteria, which include offenses that attack the state, its organs and institutions, its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. But in this case we have a subjective factor, i.e. we have to doubt the motives and intentions of Messrs. Spajić and Radulović, who with their actions like this publicly indicate the possibility that in Montenegro you can bypass legal deadlines and serious scientific research, as well as despite the specific purpose of the space, without a previously established the right of disposal and, while jeopardizing ecological standards, start the implementation of such a project, the eventual realization of which would also threaten the stability of public finances! Prime Minister Spajić and his numerous ministers should be reminded that in the past period they did not realize any of the five strategic goals foreseen in the Public Administration Reform Strategy 2022-2026. and that one of the principles of the aforementioned strategy indicates that "a special focus will be placed on the application of inclusivity standards in the creation of policies when defining services for the needs of citizens, for the sake of their optimal user experience, where qualitative and quantitative research will be used that will serve as the basis for the actions of the authorities public administration (state administration and local self-governments) and determination of directions for improvement of the situation in the field of provision".
If by some chance the Theory of Political Frauds were to be established, then in the case of Montenegro, its collected, analyzed and interpreted data would probably be among the most cited in the world! Since the "Years began in January" in the 90s, the unconscionable use and appropriation of public property, as well as the violation of personal and employment rights, which during the past decades were covered up by the purposeful inefficiency of the competent authorities of all three branches of government, became established. Since August 30, 2020, the ironic responses of the current political majority to complaints about their inability to exercise power are irresistibly reminiscent of the rhetoric from that period! Even more irritating are their current and recent violations of public authority and misuse of public resources. These political frauds, which once benefited only a narrow circle of people, still continue, but today they are even more dangerous because they are directed against the very existence of the state of Montenegro!
Orhan Pamuk says that: "My friends do not applaud the government, my comrades always lose in elections, but they are necessary for a society. My party always loses, but I would not even join those who won, I would be ashamed".
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