The Assembly did not elect judges of the Constitutional Court

Branko Radulović told journalists that he accidentally did not press the button when voting for Ružičić.

Before the vote, Andrija Popović and Striković left the session. Candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court did not receive the required majority. Majority MPs and Genci Nimanbgu from Force voted for all candidates. MPs from the Bosniak Party were against it. The candidate Snezana Armenko did not pass, 42 MPs voted for her, three against. For Vukčević 42 for, three against, for Jadranka Novaković 42 for, three against, and for Jelena Ružičić 41 for, three against. Đurović said that the Committee will repeat the procedure for electing judges of the Constitutional Court.

Proposals to elect Snežana Armenko, Ilija Vukčević, Jadranka Novaković and Jelena Ružičić as judges of the Constitutional Court were not adopted. 

Andrija Popović (LP) said that his party was ready to support one candidate for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court with the fulfillment of the condition that representatives of minorities be represented.

“I'm asking for another delay. There is no need for him to be hammered today, we still have 19 days until the end of the autumn session", he said.

During his presentation, he called Prime Minister Dritan Abazović "false emperor Šćepan mali", for which Đurović reprimanded him.

Suljo Mustafić (BS) appealed to try to reach an agreement once more.

"I am asking you to try to postpone this vote today, to try to sit down together at the table, to discuss all the issues that deeply divide Montenegrin society. Please, president, convene the collegium so that the representatives of the parliamentary clubs try to agree on all these questions," he said.

Đurović replied that in the past seven months, since she took office, she had convened meetings of party presidents three times, at which the will to find solutions was shown.

"However, this declarative desire for solutions did not show itself in practice," said Đurović and recalled that she convened several collegiums and asked for the postponement of the Constitutional Committee sessions so that the parties could find a way to come to an agreement.

She said that there was no will from the largest opposition club (DPS), which asked to vote on only two candidates - one on the proposal of the majority and the other on the proposal of the opposition.

"It is futile to postpone this endlessly, because there is definitely no will", stated Đurović.

Slaven Radunović (DF) said that the DF tried everything and "who is not there, is not there". "I would ask that we do not turn this into a discussion about the candidates, but put it to a vote," said Radunović, addressing Đurović.  

Danijela Đurović replied to Striković that the heads of parliamentary clubs met several times and tried to find a solution.

"I don't see anything new in your proposal... I don't see that there is a will to solve this, I'm sorry that there was no will on the part of the opposition," said Đurović.

Miloš Konatar (GP URA) said that today there is no more important political issue than the election of judges of the Constitutional Court.

He called for the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the European Commission to be followed and for the judges of the Constitutional Court to be elected.

"I am sorry that they did not accept our offer to complete the Constitutional Court and fulfill all their demands. And we had only one request, to complete it to the Constitutional Court. Once again, I invite my colleagues from the opposition to enter the hall and elect judges", Konatar said.

He appealed to the protesting citizens to make the protest peaceful and dignified.  

SDP deputy Adnan Striković entered the hall and asked for a procedural address.

He said that it is necessary to discuss the things that led to the political crisis in Montenegro, namely the passing of the unconstitutional Law on the President, so that later the discussion about US judges and the date of the extraordinary elections should be opened.

"We are not surprised by the reactions of the DF, but they are by those who declare themselves to be civil".

The President of the Assembly, Danijela Đurović, admonished him for negative qualifications at the expense of certain parliamentary clubs.

He proposed not to vote on the judges now, but to talk and try to find a compromise.

Amendments to the Law on the Maintenance of Residential Buildings were also adopted, which delete the provisions on the allocation of apartments to officials and civil servants on favorable terms. The amendments were adopted with 42 votes in favor, no one voted against, and there were no abstentions.  

Today, the Assembly adopted the Law on the Census by majority vote.

Three members of the BS were against, and one abstained. MPs from DPS, SD and SDP did not attend the vote.

13 amendments were submitted to the bill, nine of which were amendments of the Legislative Committee that became an integral part of the law.

SD's amendments were not accepted. They submitted two amendments, with which they requested that the census be held in November next year at the earliest and that questions related to religion, nationality and language should not be an integral part of the population census.

The DF amendment was accepted, which requested that every citizen receive a copy of the census sheet.

Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović said earlier during the debate that the census should not be postponed, as the opposition requested, and that it is currently the "last train" to hold the census next year.

"If there is agreement and will, we should define the census period," said Damjanović and added that it could be the period October 1 - November 1 of the following year.

The draft law was adopted by the Government at its session on June 2 this year.

The list includes Montenegrin citizens who have a place of residence or stay in Montenegro, regardless of whether they are present in the place of residence or temporarily stay in another place in Montenegro or in another country, and foreigners who have an approved permanent or temporary residence.

Among other things, data on the persons included in the list will be collected on name and surname, gender, date of birth and unique identification number, place and country of birth, marital status, i.e. common-law union, life partnership of persons of the same sex, citizenship, national, i.e. ethnicity, religion, mother tongue, the language the person usually speaks. "Exceptionally, if a person does not want to declare his nationality, that is, ethnicity, religion, mother tongue and the language the person usually speaks, the answer 'Does not want to declare' is entered," the proposed law states.

The law prohibiting the use of fascist and neo-fascist symbols was not adopted.

Deputies continued the third session of the second regular (autumn) session in 2022, where they will vote on candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court, as part of the election and appointment item. The session is not attended by the opposition, except Genci Nimanbegu (Forca). Candidates for judges are Snezana Armenko, Ilija Vukčević, Jadranka Novaković and Jelena Ružičić.

In the first round, at the end of October, they did not receive two-thirds of support (54 votes), while the votes of 49 deputies are needed to be elected in the second round. Deputies vote on the bills that they finished discussing in the previous days.