The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced today to clarify the details of the Decision on the criteria for determining the conditions for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship by admission, as well as the amendments to the Law on Residence and Residency Registers, and they called the accusations that could be heard in the previous days manipulations.
They said that it is not true that the Decision on the criteria for determining the conditions for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship by admission changes the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship, but that the Decision protects the mentioned law, because the current decision is illegal and unconstitutional.
"The Law on Montenegrin Citizenship, as one of the eight criteria for admission to Montenegrin citizenship, requires 10 years of continuous legal residence on the territory of Montenegro. The valid decision, illegally, extends that period to 15 years. Our initiative returns that period to the period provided for by law. Therefore, 5 years of temporary and 5 years of permanent continuous residence are one of several criteria for acquiring the right to be admitted to Montenegrin citizenship," the MUP announced.
They pointed out that it is not true that Montenegrin citizenship is revoked by the Law on Amendments to the Law on Registers of Residence and Stay.
"No Montenegrin citizen, no matter where he lives, will be deprived of his Montenegrin citizenship based on the amendments to the law on residence and residence registers. It is also paradoxical to explain that someone can be deprived of their national identity in this way. Those who are deleted from the residence register lose the right to vote, but not permanently. They can return it again when they settle in the territory of Montenegro. The amendments to the law do not apply to people who are temporarily working abroad, students, sailors, athletes, but to those who are permanently and fatefully tied their lives to another country. We repeat, even in that case, they will not lose their Montenegrin citizenship," added the MUP
From that government department, they also said that the allegations that the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Registers of Residence and Place of Residence discriminates are incorrect.
"It could even be argued that discrimination was previously carried out on a party basis. Citizens were also deleted from the voter list based on the loss of residence and that was targeted and selective. The aforementioned amendments and additions do not have any national or religious group, but they aim to regulate the basic register of residence that a state maintains. Without regulation of the register of residence, there is no regulated country. An unregulated register of residence opens up space for political manipulation and engineering."
They also said that the Law on Amendments to the Law on Registers of Residence and Residence does not violate international standards.
"Each state has the autonomous right to regulate the issue of citizenship and the register of residence as a condition for the right to vote, in the way it thinks is in its interest. In the end, the Constitution of Montenegro is clear, and we think that respecting the Constitution is a measure of patriotism," they added. are from the MUP.
They also denied accusations that the acts in the procedure constitute "betrayal of Montenegro".
"The decision on the criteria for determining the conditions for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship by admission last year was an obstacle to the admission of Montenegrin citizenship for 17 persons. So much for the story of ethnic engineering. Editing of the register of residence, we repeat, without depriving any person of citizenship, with a clear legal the procedure, with all the guarantees, is a demanding job that is indisputably in the public interest. Any serious public policy must be based on correct statistical data. Without a precise register of the residence of public policies in the sphere of health, social, fiscal, etc., they are in the fog."
"Whoever does not understand all of the above, does not even understand what a state is," concluded the MUP.
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