Parties are looking for seats and changes

The heads of the caucuses of the new parliamentary majority will talk today with the incumbent Zdravko Krivokapić about the distribution of seats "by depth" in the new administration, in accordance with the election results of the parties.

Several representatives of the parliamentary parties of the ruling majority confirmed to "Vijesti" that the meeting was scheduled, but they did not want to announce what demands they were going to the mandate holder with.

"Division by depth" is the expression for the top positions of heads of directorates, presidents and members of management boards, directors of companies, schools, health institutions... After the mandate holder announced earlier that the new government will be an expert one, the parties expressed their expectation that they will get seats on the lower levels, but according to the number of mandates won in the elections.

Krivokapić announced two days ago that he accepts that there will be a distribution by depth, but that he will not do that job because, as he stated, he has been repeatedly accused of being unprincipled. He said that principle should be shown by those who proposed to make a "distribution by depth".

"The functions in depth that should be distributed by the parliamentary majority should be covered by professional and competent people, and each minister should form his own team", said the mandate holder.

Yesterday, he spoke with representatives of the Socialist People's Party (SNP), vice-presidents Dragan Ivanović and Dragoslav Šćekić, and party official Vasilij Lalošević. After the meeting, Lalošević said that the political parties of the new parliamentary majority should receive positions in depth according to their percentage of participation in the government.

He told "Vijesta" that the SNP will provide personnel that represent their strongest names, who are professional and experienced, in order to show that they have the personnel and that they can do everything to bring Montenegro "to where it needs to be".

"First of all, it is on an honorable scale of everything that we have promised the people all these years," said Lalošević.

Answering the question of whether they are looking for more than 30 positions in depth, as well as the positions of ambassadors and school directors, Lalošević said that nothing concrete was agreed upon at the meeting, and that the division will be made in the context of a working group or commission.

"We are not asking for anything from the SNP except what belongs to us, that is the percentage we won in the elections with five mandates. I think that concrete things will be clarified at the meeting and in the following days".

He said that the essence of the whole story at the meeting was to make a kind of clarification of their and the mandate's positions regarding everything that follows.

"Vijesti" has unofficially learned that the SNP requests that by the end of December, amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion be adopted and a contract with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is signed, the Law on Lustration and the Origin of Property is passed, and that the cleaning of voter lists be started.

"We are not asking for anything except what belongs to us, that is the percentage that we won in the elections with five mandates," said party official Vasilije Lalošević.

CGO: Are we waiting for new party recruitments?

CGO expressed concern yesterday about the statements of SNP representatives that they are negotiating with the president in order to get their "due share" of seats within the Government "in depth".

Co-ordinator of the democratization and Europeanization program at CGO Mira Popović expressed that this does not lead to depoliticization of public administration, but also leads to illegal actions.

"If the new government distributes seats "by depth", we will have a continuation of the practice of political-party recruitment of the previous government, the harmful consequences of which were continuously pointed out by the critically oriented NGO sector, the media, then the opposition parties that now make up the new parliamentary majority, as well as relevant international actors such as , for example, the European Commission. It seems that now it is getting a more open and drastic view, and we expect reactions from experts and the interested public because this is not a change that can democratize and Europeanize Montenegrin society," she said.

In the announcement, he reminds that "from the election programs of the new majority party, it does not follow that they sought the vote of the citizens in order to break the law and slander party comrades, but to ensure respect for the law."

"And this is a public announcement that those who are supposed to implement the recruitment procedure will commit criminal acts and that some constituents of the new government expect that from them," says Popović.