Candidates for US judges on June 17 before the Constitutional Committee

Candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court will be interviewed on June 17 before the Constitutional Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro.

That parliamentary working body today adopted the Report on the fulfillment of the general conditions for establishing an employment relationship in a state body prescribed by the Law on Civil Servants and Employees of candidates for the election of two judges of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro.

The public call for the election of two judges was announced on August 7, 2020. 12 candidates applied, one of whom withdrew his application.

The candidacies submitted by Zdenka Perović, Ranko Vukić, Jadranka Novaković-Mandić, Nikola Medojević, Mirjana Popović, Tatjana Ljujić, Ivan Radojičić, Kasim Dizdarević, Enesa Rastoder, Sulejman Guči and Jadranka Joksimović were considered.

The president of the Constitutional Committee, Simonida Kordić, said that Kasim Dizdarević and Jadranka Joksimović did not submit complete information, and therefore did not pass the administrative check of the Committee.

Andrija Popović (LP) said that the Constitutional Court has remained with five judges and makes full decisions in very difficult circumstances.

"We know that this is intentional because of all the opposition proposals that went to the Constitutional Court five months ago. The Constitutional Court is silent about it".

He pointed out that it is good that the process of selecting two US judges has started and asked if the two candidates were eliminated, because they did not submit complete documentation and which of them is close to fulfilling the requirements for retirement.

Kordić replied that those two candidates did not submit complete applications, so they cannot even be considered.

"The next step is an interview with candidates who have submitted complete applications. Then you will receive all the documentation...", said Kordić.

Branko Radulović (DF) said that they will try to reach a broad consensus because many positions in the prosecution and the judiciary require two-thirds, or three-fifths of the votes in the Assembly:

"Now the parliamentary majority is 41, which means that 54 votes are necessary, with the satisfaction of the basic thing - that it must be a truly professional".

The committee also considered proposals for the evaluation of the constitutionality of the Law, which were adopted at the session on January 20, and whose constitutionality evaluation was requested by the opposition before the Constitutional Court.

These are the Law on Amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities, the Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, the Law on Amendments to the Law on Credit Institutions, the Law on Amendments to the Law on Rehabilitation of Credit Institutions and of the Law on Amendments to the Labor Law.

Kordić said that a quorum was established at that session, and then the resignation of MP URA Filip Adžić was noted and the beginning of the mandate of MP Suada Zoronjić was noted.

"You remember that on that day and evening, the State Election Commission (SEC) carried out a maneuver in which it tried to challenge the election of MP Zoronjić, introducing a new and actually unconstitutional practice of voting on its own report," said Kordić.

She said that the SEC's role is to formally inform who is the next MP on the list of the coalition where there is a change of MP.

She reminded that after the confirmation of Zoronjic's mandate, the Assembly continued its work and passed laws, which are contested by the opposition by submitting an initiative for constitutional review.

Democrat MP Vladimir Martinović said that it is absolutely certain that the session at which the aforementioned laws were adopted was in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, the law and the Constitution of Montenegro.

"The fact that someone tried to carry out a kind of parliamentary coup by attacking the SEC, let him be honored. What is much more important than that is that the parliamentary coup did not succeed and that we did everything in accordance with the law at that session," said the Democrat MP.

This, as he said, is also confirmed by the commendatory opinion given by the Council of Europe.

Suada Zoronjić said that the MP is in accordance with the electoral will of the citizens and in accordance with the Constitution, and that no one could 'buy' her as a representative of the Bosniak people.

"It is clear why the members of the opposition tried to demoralize the entire process, to degrade the Assembly, and with them the SEC... The members of the opposition do not think that their mandate is more important than mine, that they are more important personalities than all of us here" , Zoronjic said.