At the constituent session of the Parliament of Montenegro, scheduled for Tuesday, it is most likely that only parliamentary mandates will be verified, because among the first on the list of the "European Montenegro" coalition are mayors and directors of public companies and agencies, who cannot be MPs at the same time.
Due to the prohibition of the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest, which does not allow municipal presidents and leaders to sit on parliamentary benches, after the constitution of the parliament and intra-party consultations, the officials will submit their resignations, and the parliamentary seats will be given to lower-ranking colleagues.
The legal bans on merging directorial and parliamentary functions did not prevent the coalition led by Milo Đukanović from filling the election list with heads of agencies and state companies, as well as municipal presidents. According to a tried and tested recipe, the ruling coalition thereby animates voters who support it because of influential officials, although this does not mean that they will later represent them in parliament.
The Law on the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest provides that public officials who perform tasks in the executive branch at the local or state level cannot perform the function of deputies
The Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest provides that public officials who perform tasks in the executive branch at the local or state level cannot perform the function of deputies. The official must submit his resignation to one of the two functions, in the executive power or in the parliament, within 30 days. That deadline coincides with the legal deadline by which the president should nominate a representative for the composition of the new government.
The director of the Commission for the Prevention of Conflict of Interest, Slobodan Leković, told "Vijesta" that the Commission can react only after the Assembly is constituted, and that on the basis of individual requests for officials.
"When it comes to the members of the Government, the Constitution of Montenegro, which is a higher legal act than the law, provides in Article 110 that it is about the Government in resignation until a new one is constituted. The deadline for submitting resignations for other officials is specified by the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest, so we can react based on that, after the Assembly is constituted," said Leković.
Legal prohibitions on the merging of executive and parliamentary functions did not prevent the coalition led by Milo Đukanović from filling the election list with heads of agencies and state companies, as well as municipal presidents.
The parliamentary position and the function in the executive branch are considered incompatible, which is why Mugoša and the mayor of Cetinje, Aleksandar Bogdanović, resigned at the beginning of the year, while many deputies from the ruling coalition, such as the directors of the Employment Agency, the Property Administration and the Real Estate Administration Zoran Jelić , Mevludin Nuhodžić and Mićo Orlandić, had to give up their directorships in state enterprises.
Zlatko Vujović, director of the Management Board of the Center for Monitoring (CEMI), the organization that supervised the election process, believes that a significant number of candidates on the parliamentary lists will find themselves in a conflict of interest.
"At one point, he will perform two functions that are incompatible. Despite the existence of a norm that allows them to choose one of the positions within 30 days, it is necessary for them to submit their resignations after the Assembly is constituted, and before participating in making important decisions. In order to avoid a situation of conflict of interest, it is necessary for them to resign immediately and exclude themselves from the vote," concluded Vujović.
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