The amendment of the Decision on the criteria for determining the conditions for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship by admission will not lead to any electoral engineering, nor to changes in the structure of the population, said the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, Boris Marić.
Marić told the MINA agency that the conditions for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship do not change and that the same people who have voted in all the next elections will vote, and that the percentage of newly registered voters will not be any higher than before. and until now.
He said that theses are consciously and intentionally changed, in order to raise political tensions and thus achieve the projected political goal.
"It is a legitimate political method up to the level of peaceful demonstrations of political views. We had the opportunity to see a similar or identical situation years ago from part of the current ruling majority when they were the opposition," said Marić.
According to him, the irresponsibility of political subjects is worrying, where party interests are dramatically insisted upon, along with incendiary populist rhetoric, along with whole arsenals of inappropriate epithets.
"Every space that involves reasoned discussion, life issues, organized state records, sustainable public finances is being closed," said Marić.
As he said, we have a paradoxical situation, that the Democratic Party of Socialists dominantly defends huge and gross omissions in state records, using dramatic populist rhetoric with fabricated projections.
""Controversial" interventions on the "controversial" decision will not lead to any electoral engineering, changes in the structure of the population, and in all subsequent elections the same people who have voted in them so far will vote, and the newly registered percentage will not be anything more than that has been the case until now," Marić pointed out.
He said that the conditions for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship do not change, but that the Decision, as a secondary legal act provided for by the Law on Citizenship, is adapted to the norms of that law and defines one of the eight conditions for acquiring citizenship by admission.
"One of the conditions that raised a lot of dust is that someone stays in Montenegro under one legally, under two continuously and under three for ten years. If there is an interruption of only one day, the entire previous period "fails", stated Marić.
He pointed out that when a person acquires the condition of legally and continuously residing in Montenegro for ten years, he will not receive citizenship, if he does not cumulatively fulfill all other seven conditions.
"Until now, we had a selective application, so someone got citizenship even after five years of residence, and someone could not get it even after decades of legal and continuous stay in Montenegro. Now the conditions are being created for the law to be applied equally to everyone when they meet very strict and all criteria for obtaining citizenship," said Marić.
He pointed to the fact that the controversial decision, which, as he said, is being defended in a dramatic and pathetic way, illegally established a term of 15 years, which does not exist in the law.
"That's the whole story about the drama of Montenegrin citizenship," added Marić.
Marić emphasized that the method of obtaining Montenegrin citizenship does not change with admission.
"Nothing changes in the Law on Citizenship, that must be known. It is still a condition of all conditions that anyone who wants Montenegrin citizenship by admission must renounce their native citizenship in order to be admitted to Montenegrin citizenship," said Marić.
As he added, renunciation of native citizenship is only one of eight conditions that must be met in order to obtain Montenegrin citizenship.
Marić pointed out that citizens who obtain citizenship in this way will not be automatically entered in the electoral roll.
"After obtaining citizenship, they would have to have continuously resided in Montenegro for two years, after which they would acquire the conditions for registration in the voter's list," he explained.
Commenting on the announced changes to the Law on Residence and Residence Registers, Marić said that the residence register is the record from which the voter list is derived and that it has been rumored for decades that it is out of date.
He said that arranging the register of residence is necessary for an up-to-date voter's list and that now, for the first time, conditions are being created to organize those records.
"Manipulation and political interest dominate, so from the need to sort out state records, in that way take a significant step in the reform of state administration and win fair elections, and therefore speed up the path to the EU, there is an insistence on raising tensions despite the fact that everyone who who voted in the previous elections will also vote in the next, and that it will be the same electorate of the citizens of Montenegro," said Marić.
He said that the residence of tens of thousands of people who, due to the lack of work in Montenegro, are temporarily working abroad, but that those who have permanently tied their fate to another country, have the citizenship of that country and have not come to Montenegro for decades, acquire the conditions to their residence is frozen.
Their possible return, Marić stated, activates all the rights that were "on hold" until that moment.
"If we want a strong and law-governed state of Montenegro, we as its citizens must have more respect and tolerance for each other, that is the only way it is civil and sustainable," said Marić.
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