The opposition should supervise the implementation of electoral reforms through a technical government, which would have to function for at least a year in order to properly prepare the next elections.
This is what they believe in the civil sector, after the Committee for Comprehensive Reform of Electoral Legislation extended the deadline for changes to the law until November. Their adoption is expected by the end of the year. Parliamentary elections should be held by October next year, which should start with the already amended regulations.
The executive director of the Politikon network, Jovana Marović, however, warned in a statement to "Vijesti" that half a year is not enough to prepare the conditions for fair elections. She believes that electoral reforms should be supervised by a government that would also include representatives of the opposition.
"The mandate of the transitional government must last at least 12 months. Such a scenario does not suit the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), so such an option is not currently on the table, nor are they ready to offer it to the opposition at the moment, so procrastination is expected.
"The opposition should not participate in new experiments that will not lead to better conditions for holding elections," Marović believes.
By forming a technical government at the beginning of the year, the opposition conditioned the continuation of work on electoral reforms, but the representatives of the government rejected such a possibility.
President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović called the demands for a technical government political blackmail, while Prime Minister Duško Marković stated that DPS is ready to offer the opposition a solution that would ensure political dialogue, but a technical government is not an option at this time. He said that the offer to the opposition will be delivered after the congress of the ruling party at the end of November, and according to unofficial information, it does not exclude an invitation to join the government. After changes in the functioning of the Committee for Electoral Reforms, the Democrats and the URA movement agreed to participate in the work of that parliamentary working body, while the rest of the opposition announced that they would continue their boycott of Obor.
Although the Committee is responsible for monitoring the implementation of electoral reforms, the opposition has announced that it will insist on the formation of a technical government that would prepare the elections.
The executive director of the Center for Political Education, Dragiša Janjušević, claims that the opposition is losing control of the process, leaving the DPS to profit from the political crisis. The opposition demanded the formation of a technical government after the outbreak of the "Envelope" affair and civil protests, which were interrupted in May, although their demands for the formation of a civil unity government were not met.
"The opposition leaves control to the DPS, which is playing on time in order to leave as little time and space as possible for the technical government and the reform of the electoral legislation. This phenomenon is repeated, which means that the responsibility can be addressed to everyone equally because we have continuously had the unchangeable power for thirty years. "Similar situations have already happened at the local and state level, from which lessons have not been learned," Janjušević told "Vijesta". The model of alleged joint election preparation was applied in 2016, when the opposition entered the so-called government of electoral confidence. In the government led by Đukanović, the opposition held the position of vice-president and minister of the interior, finance, labor and social welfare, as well as the minister of agriculture. Although they complained about obstruction in the government, the opposition representatives remained until the end of the mandate, and the ruling coalition won the 2016 elections.
Marović believes that the opposition must apply the experiences of that government.
"Lessons learned from 2016 are that the mandate of the transitional government must be longer than the mandate of the government of electoral trust, as well as the departments that will be controlled and without restrictions, what can be subject to control. The opposition would already have to come up with a set of demands in relation to what ensures fair elections, such as control of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), improvement of electoral legislation, proactive action by the Prosecutor's Office, arrangement of the voter list... Only on the condition that If the DPS agrees to the opposition's demands, we can talk about a potentially good framework for regular elections," Marović asserts.
Spent energy of protest
Marović warns that the opposition failed to take advantage of civil protests after the outbreak of the "Envelope" affair, but also failed to coordinate joint actions. The organizers of the protest and the opposition signed the Agreement on the Future, which, among other things, announces the boycott of all elections in the event that a technical government is not formed.
"The opposition is already paying the price of unused civil rebellion and the inability to improve its joint activities, based on the agreement reached. The primary goal of most opposition parties is to win a larger number of mandates, so in order to achieve it, they resort to all means, the most commonly used of which is media warfare with the rest of the opposition, which according to calculations should lead to an overflow of votes and overcomposition within the opposition itself. Such an approach makes them a weak alternative to the government," she believes.
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