Lack of pre-election euphoria and stories about fulfilled promises of the ruling coalition are the main features of the campaign ahead of Sunday's elections in Ulcinj. Although the parties that make up the current government announce victory, it is unlikely that the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Forca and the coalition around the Democratic Party (DP) will be in the same alliance after the elections.
Program director of the Civic Alliance (GA) Boris Raonić points out that this is one of the "quieter elections" in Ulcinj, which is why one gets the impression that everyone already knows what the results will be.
"The only friction between the Social Democrats (SD) and the Force, as well as the intensified rhetoric of the URA, does not change that impression. The only unknown is related to the distribution of the votes of the Orthodox and small differences between the Albanian national parties", Raonic assessed.
Social Democratic Party (SDP) official Skender Elezagić believes that the campaign is quiet because the stronger parties no longer have anything to offer voters.
"They run away from confrontation, because they have no arguments. Representatives of three out of ten newspapers were on Radio Montenegro. It was similar on TV Teuta," said Elezagić, reminding that government representatives made promises that they did not fulfill.
Thus, the leader of Force Nazif Cungu, two years ago, after being inaugurated as the mayor of Ulcinj for the second time, promised financial consolidation, environmental protection of Solana, Valdanos and the Old Town, as well as the creation of a favorable investment environment. He stated then that the city is facing an increase in the number of unemployed and the emigration of educated personnel to the countries of Western Europe and the USA.
The holder of the list of the URA movement, Omer Bajraktari, claims that the mayor did not fulfill those promises. He points out that the Municipality has over 10 million euros in debt and four unpaid salaries to officials. "As well as over 12 salaries in some JP, over five years of unpaid taxes and contributions with 600.000 euros of government aid, while the budget implementation rate for last year was 40 percent," claims Bajraktari.
Andrija Ćetković, a candidate for councilor on the list of the Socialist People's Party and the Democratic Front, pointed out that the number of unemployed has not decreased "even though the party's employment in the local administration has continued."
"What is extremely worrisome is that not a single job has been opened in the real sector in our municipality, so the trend of departures of the best young, educated personnel has continued," said Ćetković.
The leader of the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA), Mehmed Zenka, claims that the party is not running away from responsibility for its participation in the government for the last two years.
"We tried our best to improve and recover the deplorable state we found ourselves in when we took over the government, in line with the positions we were filling," said Zenka. WITH
Cungu: Fewer abuses and costs
Cungu claims that the financial abuse of the Municipality and the misuse of the budget for private and various other purposes have been stopped.
"We have halved the travel and expenses of the representation, fuel, as well as those for non-purpose media services", pointed out Cungu, emphasizing that the Municipality has successfully implemented the projects it received from foreign funds. He stated that the requirements for the protection of Solana and Valdanos have been included in the Spatial Plan, as well as that in the previous four years, around 20 smaller hotels with 4 stars were built. He also claims that the adaptation of Belvi, Mediteran and Otranto is underway and that the Municipality is the winner of the "Best Practice Program in local government 2017" award.
Bonus video:
