Although the European Commission has repeatedly emphasized the need for depoliticization of public administration, the documents obtained by "Vijesti", which were used by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in the pre-election campaign for the 2006 and 2016 elections in Kotor, show that that party with support conditions the extension of employment contracts for local officials.
For years, the opposition has been warning that the DPS, together with its political allies, is listing civil servants in the state administration, controlling their attendance at the polls, and even taking documents from opposition-minded people until the elections are over.
Until now, however, there has been no public confirmation of this.
"Vijesti" obtained lists that confirm that the DPS keeps records of temporary employees in local administrations, in this case in Kotor, in order to secure votes - taking advantage of their undefined work status and the possibility of being unemployed.
The list of fixed-term employees at the level of the Municipality of Kotor from 2016 and 2006 includes interns and contract employees.
The documents were prepared by the then Secretariat for the General Administration of the Municipality of Kotor, and were used by the DPS.
Before the local elections in Kotor in 2006, 23 officials were registered on it. Those who support DPS are marked with a "plus", and those who are not their voters are marked with a "minus". In addition to their names, there is information about their place of employment, termination of employment and completed school.
Also, DPS has a list of officials, managers, employees and employees for an indefinite period in the Municipality of Kotor in 2016, as well as a list of workers employed as of December 31, 12 in the Directorate for Planning and Construction of Kotor.
In addition to the "plus" and "minus" marks, next to their names, it is also indicated which party they belong to, if they are not for DPS - for example, the Croatian Citizen Initiative.
In addition to some names, it also says that certain DPS officials should talk to them, so the name of Marija Ćatović (DPS MP, former president of Kotor Municipality) and Ivo Magud (then director of the directorate, current secretary for finance) is mentioned.
It is stated that out of the total number of employees in the Municipality of Kotor DPS, there are 107 voters, while 69 are not their supporters.
The same is the case with the document from 2006. On the list of temporary employees in the Secretariat for General Administration of the Municipality of Kotor from 2006, there are 18 temporary employees, as well as three interns and six contract employees.
Those who support DPS are marked with a "plus", and others with a "minus". In addition to their name, there is also information about when their employment or internship ends.
Based on them, activists of the ruling party assess whether the citizens will vote for them in the elections.
The State Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation in connection with this, and until now the DPS has ignored the questions regarding the "lists".
"I received information that part of that material, according to the writings of the public in that period of the transitional government, before the 2016 elections, somehow found itself outside the official records of the Ministry of Interior", stated Đukanović at the press conference after the conversation with his Croatian colleague Zoran Milanović.
He alluded to the then Minister of Internal Affairs from the opposition, Goran Danilović, against whom the DPS filed a complaint in 2016, but the prosecutor's office rejected it in the meantime.
The leader of the DPS said that the election environment has been improved and said that he will advocate for all interested parliamentary subjects to have completely equal conditions for participating in the elections and for the institutions of the system to do their job in order to ensure that the elections take place in a democratic and fair atmosphere .
"We had the assessment of a relevant observer, we fulfilled most of the recommendations. We persistently invited all competitors to sit down at the table and try to solve those issues that require two-thirds support", said Đukanović.
Democrats are filing a complaint today for violation of election rights and misuse of data
Today, Democratic Montenegro should submit a criminal complaint to the Special State Prosecutor's Office against the leaders of the DPS, who they believe have committed several criminal acts related to the elections.
The report is against Đukanović, Željko Aprcović, the then president of the Kotor DPS, as well as against NN persons from the MUP and other NN persons.
"They are charged with several crimes, namely the creation of a criminal organization, abuse of official position, violation of the right to vote, violation of freedom of choice when voting, violation of voting secrecy, unauthorized collection and use of personal data...", it is stated.
The Democrats state that "Djukanović was at the head of the criminal organization at the time of the execution of these criminal acts, who knowingly and willingly organized a criminal group, in order to, by abusing his official position, collect data on persons without authorization from the databases run by the MUP, carry out voter registration, and monitor them and influenced their determination, with which they committed several criminal acts".
They named Aprcović, the current mayor of Kotor, as a member of an organized criminal group, whose task was, as they say, to commit these criminal acts in the area of Kotor.
In the criminal complaint, they demand the hearing of Đukanović, Aprcović..., expert examination of databases, seizure of computers from the premises of OO DPS Kotor and DPS Montenegro, control of email addresses and similar actions. The persons from Kotor mentioned in the "Spisak" affair were asked in the criminal complaint to testify before the prosecution.
The application is signed by the members of the presidency, the former mayor of Kotor Vladimir Jokić, Velizar Kaluđerović and Neven Gošović.
In the 2016 elections, the opposition won, but the DPS and its allies took power last year with the support of the defector Bruna Lončarević, then an SDP councilor.
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