Democrats and URA will not join the working group?

Democratic Montenegro and the Civil Movement URA will participate in the Working Group only if that parliamentary working body discusses the Plan for Comprehensive Electoral and Other Reforms previously submitted by those two parties. According to the interlocutors of "Vijesti", the other opposition parties will be involved in changes to electoral laws only if the Working Group includes representatives of the Democrats and the URA movement.

Yesterday, the parties of Alekse Bečić and Dritan Abazović called the proposal of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) a falsification, according to which an ad hoc working group would be formed for the further development and amendment of electoral and other legislation, stating that it is a "malicious rewriting of the Plan for comprehensive electoral and other reforms submitted by those two parties".

"DPS tried to get support from comprehensive electoral and other reforms for cosmetic upgrading and superficial optimization of electoral and other legislation with the crude phrasing of our plan along with dilution, meaningless or complete distortion of key items. They used a fraudulent method to hide their intention to escape from comprehensive reform and, simulating democracy, invited all political subjects to work with them on the alleged optimization and superficial improvement of electoral legislation. We are telling them to accept the Plan for Comprehensive Electoral and Other Reforms because, otherwise, the Democrats and the URA will not participate in the work of that working body," the parties state.

The collegium of the President of the Assembly submitted to the parliamentary parties the proposal of the DPS, according to which a working group would be formed for the further development and amendment of the electoral and other legislation, in which there would be seven representatives of the government and the opposition, headed by a representative of the DPS. Decisions in that working body, as stated, would have to be made by consensus without separate opinions.

The sessions could be attended by representatives of state bodies, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, universities, as well as experts and consultants from certain fields. The formation of the working group was requested by Democratic Montenegro and URA, which are boycotting the work of the parliament.

The Democrats and the URA movement warn that the DPS proposal does not envisage discussing the implementation of all OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, and that they do not want changes in the work of the State Election Commission (SEC) and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK). They also state that in DPS they are not ready to form a Committee to supervise the consistent application of adopted laws and by-laws, but to define the mandate of the already formed body.

"From the original document, the DPS takes over the sentence "amendment of the set of media laws with the aim of harmonizing the legal framework with EU and international standards" and modifies it into "consideration of the Draft Law on Media, with analysis of the set of media laws with possible amendments". With this modification, the DPS clearly states the position that the Working Group should not determine the proposal for a set of media laws, but only consider the draft laws that will be prepared by the Government", state Democrats and URA. The ruling party, as they state, shows readiness for additions and not a comprehensive reform of the electoral legislation. The proposal stipulates that NGOs do not participate in the work of the Working Group, but that they are invited as necessary, if all members of the Working Group agree.

Stanić: The proposal was agreed upon by the DPS and the Democrats

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) considers the dialogue between the opposition and the authorities necessary for building a democratic electoral environment, said the spokesman of that party, Mirko Stanić. He believes that a dialogue between the opposition and the government is necessary to build a democratic election environment.

"The proposals that were essentially agreed upon by the DPS and the Democrats are an acceptable way to get out of the impasse and a starting point for starting the dialogue," Stanić said.

According to him, it is particularly important that the principle of the same number of representatives of the opposition and the government and consensus in decision-making is ensured.

"The achieved participation of the non-governmental sector from previous dialogues between the government and the opposition must be preserved in this process as well," said Stanić.

As he stated, the SDP will affirm the culture of agreement and the European principle of consensus in a new attempt to provide citizens with the best possible conditions for the expression of free will.