It was not known until yesterday whether the deputies will decide on the election of special prosecutor Lidija Vukčević as the supreme state prosecutor at the ongoing session, and today a collegium of the president of the parliament is scheduled at which it could be defined.
The election of the VDT should be within the point of elections and appointments, and for now it is certain that the deputies will choose the jury for the awarding of the Thirteenth of July Award, the composition of which was already proposed by the Administrative Board last month.
At the end of January, the competent Parliamentary Committee for Political System, Administration and Justice conducted a consultative hearing of Lidija Vukčević, and it was not until March 5 that it submitted a report to all MPs.
Unlike previous years, when that committee proposed or almost never challenged the election of the VDT or other officials, now it only submits a report on what was discussed at the session, which was otherwise public. The practice was changed by the Board's position, although the legal basis remained the same.
In the Committee's report, it is also stated that the conditions for the selection of the VDT are fulfilled by Danka Marković, a lawyer and an employee of the Municipality of Beran.
Lidija Vukčević was proposed by the Prosecutor's Council on January 16 after she responded to a public advertisement. In the proposal signed by Ivica Stanković, the current acting VDT and TS president, it is stated that Vukčević is a career prosecutor with 23 years of experience in that organization, that her promotion is based on a responsible, professional, professional and highly moral attitude towards work.
"During her long career as a prosecutor, she was trained to work on all cases for criminal offenses for which prosecution is undertaken ex officio, but she is especially specialized in working on cases in the field of high corruption and war crimes, where she achieved significant results", according to TS.
Vukčević said at the Board session that her motive for applying for the position, as written in the Report, is "strengthening the postulate of the rule of law and contributing to the efficient action of the prosecution when prosecuting perpetrators of criminal acts, so that the public in Montenegro feels safe."
Member of the Committee from SDP Ranko Krivokapić said that the reports of the European Commission on the progress of Montenegro in this area, since 2016, do not show progress in the institutional sense. He said that the prosecutor's office, as the main prosecuting body, was not sufficiently proactive in deterring the perpetrators of criminal acts, which resulted in an increase in crime. "In this regard, he added that the position of VDT requires certain qualifications, which the proposed candidate does not possess, and he believes that she does not have an adequate predisposition for this leadership position," said the deputy and writes in the report.
His colleagues from the Democratic Front also criticized the work of Vukčević, who publicly challenged the prosecution of Atlas Group owner Duško Knežević. In one case, DF MP Nebojša Medojević was also under suspicion, who publicly rejected, as he said, fabricated accusations. The election of the VDT requires the support of two-thirds or three-fifths of the deputies, which currently does not exist in the Assembly. If Vukčević does not receive support in the first vote, it can be repeated only after a month, and then the MPs will declare themselves also for the candidate Danka Marković, who was a member of the SNP in the previous parliamentary convocation.
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