Today, the new parliamentary majority is most likely to adopt a decision postponing the local elections in several municipalities to October 30 this year, which the Democrats and the Democratic Front yesterday once again characterized as running away from the outcome of the vote.
They also claim that it is a violation of the Constitution and encroachment on the authority of the President, who, according to the Constitution, calls the elections.
The elections should be postponed by the amendment of the Law on Local Self-Government, which is on the agenda of today's session, and which was previously assessed as unconstitutional by the part of the NGO sector that monitors the elections. Because this is the issue of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament, the change of which, however, requires the support of two-thirds of the Members of Parliament - which is not available now.
It is planned that, as Vijesti was told in the new parliamentary majority, it is still being worked on. The interlocutor said that they are thinking about starting a political dialogue through the Committee for Electoral Reform, in order to reach an agreement on holding local elections in all 24 municipalities through the amendment of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament.
Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic announced last week that he would talk to the president of the parliament Danijelom Đurović on starting a dialogue on all issues, the solution of which requires two-thirds or three-fifths support.
Yesterday's discussion at the Political System, Judiciary and Administration and Legislative Committees, however, indicates that Democrats would boycott such a conversation. The leader of that party Aleksa Becic yesterday he also sent an open letter to the head of the Delegation of the European Union in Montenegro Oani Christina Popi in which he announced that their deputies will leave the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform if the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government is adopted.
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He stated that with the adoption of the Proposal, it would be pointless to conduct any dialogue between political subjects on issues where a qualified majority is necessary.
Head of the Club of Deputies of Democrats Boris Bogdanovic he told Vijesti that yesterday's decision of the legislative committee was a "legal scandal".
Yesterday, the Legislature and the Committee for the Political System supported, by the votes of a new majority, the amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, which provide for the postponement of elections in several municipalities.
President of the state Milo Djukanovic previously announced elections for Bijelo Polje and Šavnik for June 12, extraordinary elections for June 5 in Budva, Tivat, and regular elections in Plužine and Žabljak. He announced the elections in Podgorica for June 19. Yesterday it was also announced that the polls in Pljevlja will be held on July 3. By the end of July, the president should call for elections in several more municipalities.
The proposal to amend the Law, which was submitted on April 28 by the parliamentary clubs of the Democratic Party of Socialists, the Socialist People's Party, the "Black on White" coalition, the Bosniak Party and the Social Democratic Party, proposed postponing the elections in Pljevlje, Rožaje, Plav, Tivat, Budva, Plužine, Žabljak, Bijelo Polje, Šavnik, Bar, Danilovgrad, Kolašin, Podgorica and in the city municipality of Golubovci.
As reasons, they cited a reminder that this is being insisted on "from European addresses", and that in the changed socio-political environment, along with the expected unblocking of institutions, it is necessary to intensify the work of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform, in order to create a normative framework for maintaining all local elections in Montenegro in one day, respecting the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR.
The European Commission previously suggested that it is not good for the state to be in a constant election campaign, but so far no consensus has been reached to amend the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament by a two-thirds majority. The Committee for Electoral Reforms, while it was managed by the DPS, was boycotted by the opposition, and when the DF took over the leadership, the work was obstructed by the DPS and its allies.
Members of the current opposition warned yesterday at the sessions of two committees that the proposal to amend the Law on Local Self-Government is unconstitutional and that the goal is not to unify local elections but to postpone them.
Democrat MP Vladimir Martinovic he reminded that the president of the state had already returned such a law and suggested that it would probably happen again.
Predrag Bulatović (DF) said that in order to achieve the goal of holding elections in one day, it is necessary to start a dialogue in the Committee for Electoral Reform, through the Law on Election of Councilors. He said that postponing the elections is an escape from the electoral will and that the law is invalid and offered to open a dialogue so that through changes to the Law on Councilors and Members of Parliament, the elections could be unified and held in June.
Head of the Club of Representatives Black on White (CnB) Milos Konatar at the session of the Committee for the Political System, on behalf of the proposer, he said that the text of the law is nothing new, pointing to the initiatives of the former President of the Assembly Aleksa Bečić, the heads of the parliamentary clubs of the DF, the Democrats, the SNP, the Movement for Change and the Black on white.
Predrag Sekulić (DPS) proposed at the session of the Legislative Committee that that body propose an amendment stating that "elections should be held by October 30". He believes that the proposer made an oversight.
President of that Committee Maja Vukićević (DF) said that this is another attempt to delay the elections, because some parties "that have made some unprincipled coalitions, want to escape from the judgment of the people".
Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government were withdrawn from the parliamentary procedure for the first time in November, although all government representatives were its signatories. This happened after the "Black on White" coalition did not accept the amendments of the SNP, which were supposed to guarantee that the decision of the president of the state to call elections in Cetinje, Petnjica and Mojkovac will cease to be valid.
The next attempt was when MPs from the "Black on White" coalition, DPS, SD, SDP, BS and two Albanian lists initiated changes to that law at the end of January, so that the elections in 14 municipalities and the city municipality of Golubovci could be held in one day. The MPs adopted those changes at the beginning of February, but a few days later Đukanović sent it back to the Assembly for a re-decision with the explanation that it was unconstitutional. The Assembly did not re-adopt that law.
SNP MPs requested at the end of December that their proposal to amend the law to postpone the local elections in Berane and Ulcinj be put on the agenda as an urgent procedure, but they withdrew the proposal on January 16, due to "technical errors".
Bogdanović: We proposed extending the mandate of the assemblies
"This legal austerity is based both on the law and on the essence of the Law on running away from elections, and nothing more than that. In addition to being such, it is a scandalous procedure for deputies to define the date of the election by the Law on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government. This is happening for the first time in history, because it is the exclusive competence of the president of the state. It is worth reminding that this law has nothing to do with our proposal for the Law on the Merger of Local Elections, because at that time we proposed extending the mandate of the assemblies of local self-government units, and with this proposal they set the date of postponed elections, forcefully to the shame even in those municipalities where elections must be held by force of law," Boris Bogdanović told Vijestima.
He says that the bottom line is that the new majority is aware that, as he says, it deceived the people and that they will do everything they can to avoid the elections.
"Aware of the catastrophic level of citizens' trust, they resorted to legal violence, which should not surprise anyone after the creation of an illegal and illegitimate coup government.
We have been warning for a long time about this path, from which there is no return for those who take it, so it will not be the same for them: whenever Montenegro has elections, and how will they be able to respond to the humiliations that have been inflicted on them in the previous few months, with which the Constitution was also insulted, and democracy, and the legal system, and finally the citizen as the bearer of sovereignty," said the head of the Democrat club.
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