Hearings of candidates for the election of four judges of the Constitutional Court before the parliamentary committee will begin today, and according to unofficial information, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) would be ready to vote at the plenum for at least one candidate.
There were such announcements the previous time as well, but the deputies of the strongest opposition party did not even appear in the assembly hall.
This time, Montenegro was threatened with the termination of the negotiation process with the European Union if there is no "good news" about the unblocking of the Constitutional Court by January 23, so it is expected that the procedure for electing judges will be completed at the end of January. However, until yesterday, there was no confirmation from any political address.
DPS, as well as part of the ruling majority parties, are under diplomatic pressure from international partners and the European Union, whose representatives have repeatedly warned that they could end the accession negotiations with Montenegro if the Constitutional Court is not unblocked.
The Commission of the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee determined yesterday that the applications of 26 candidates for the election of four judges of the Constitutional Court were correct, while only the application was incomplete. Treasures of Mitrić.
"The commission rejected that application. The other candidates submitted timely and complete applications," said the President of the Committee Simonida Kordić.
They are candidates Marijan Aković, Snezana Armenko, Alija Beganović, Narcisa Maja Bošković, Nikola Golubović, Suleiman Gucci, Dragana Đuranović, Azra Jasavić, Snežana Ionica, Fadil R. Kardović, Danica Kovačević, Jovan Kojičić, Sanja Maslenjak, Darko Mugoša, Medina Musovic, Jadranka Novaković, Zdenka Perović, Ivan Radojicic, Savo Rašović, Faruk Resulbegović, Jelena Ruzicic, Momirka Tešić, Edmond Ujkaj, Azra Cam, Maja Šćepanović i Amer Šukurica.
Most of them also applied for previous ads, such as Armenko, Jonica, Guči, Perović, Đuranović, Jasavić, Maslenjak, Novaković...
The ad, which ended on January 10, is the sixth since August 2020. Four did not result in the determination of the list of candidates at the Board, while after the fifth, the last, the parliamentary majority proposed four lawyers to the plenum - Snežana Armenko, Ilija Vukčević, Jadranka Novaković and Jelena Ružičić. However, none of them was elected even after two rounds of voting, in October and December, and the parliamentary dialogue of the parties in between. Vukčević was the only one of the four who did not apply for the new ad. In mid-December, he was elected as the state secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
The election of US judges requires 53 and 49 votes of deputies, so it is impossible without an agreement between the government and the opposition.
From the office of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, the current deputy Snežana Armenko and her former colleague Zdenka Perović applied for the competition.
Armenko was shortlisted in the previous advertisement and despite being an advisor in the office of the state representative before the European Court of Human Rights, she did not receive support because the opposition is bothered by her family relationship with the representative of the Democratic Front (DF). Predrag Bulatović. Armenko was a judge of the Basic Court in Podgorica and supported the Judicial Council during the rule of the DPS.
Two candidates applied from the Basic Court of Kotor, namely judge Narcisa Maja Bošković and acting president Momirka Tešić.
Dragana Đuranović was the protector of the property and legal interests of Montenegro, and at the previous hearing before the committee, she shocked part of the public by declaring that she is a member of the DPS and that the law does not prohibit a US judge from being a member of a political party. She received the support of her party at the Board session.
Sanja Maslenjak also admitted before the Board that she is a member of DPS. She is an advisor in the Ministry of Public Administration.
However, that party, according to several sources, is ready to support the current judge of the Administrative Court, Jelena Ružičić. From that court, Judge Faruk also applied for the advertisement Kadrović and Medina Mušović.
Several lawyers responded to the ad, namely Sulejman Guči from Ulcinj, Amer Šukurica from Bijelo Polje (who is also the president of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Geological Research). Then Azra Jasavić from Podgorica - who is also a former deputy of Positive Montenegro and deputy prime minister during the mandate of DPS.
Snežana Jonica is a former member of the SNP, until recently she was the director of the administrative sector in the Port of Kotor.
Danica Kovačević, former inspector general of the National Security Agency (ANB), appeared for the Constitutional Court for the first time. She was appointed to that position in September 2021, while ANB was headed by Dejan Vukšić, and she resigned in July 2022.
Jovan Kojičić is a professor at the Faculty of State and European Studies, he was an adviser to two prime ministers, Igor Lukšić and Milo Đukanović.
Two people applied from the US - Jadranka Novaković, who is the head of the Department for Constitutional Appeals, and adviser Ivan Radojičić.
And two prosecutors are interested in moving up the legal ladder. Faruk Resulbegović, who is the basic state prosecutor in Ulcinj, and Maja Šćepanović, head of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kolašin.
Savo Rašović, acting secretary of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, Edmond Ujkaj, a lawyer in the notary's office and president of the Tuzi Municipal Election Commission, also submitted their applications.
The application was also submitted by Azra Cama, head of the Department for second-degree administrative proceedings in the Directorate for Security and Supervisory Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Darko Mugoša - director of the legal services for claims and recourse in Lovćen insurance, Alija Beganović is the president of the Bijelo Polje misdemeanor court.
Also Nikola Golubović, member of the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures and Marijan Aković, Secretary of the Health Center in Berane.
The Prime Minister does not believe in ending the negotiations, Šehović is worried about the warning messages
Yesterday, Prime Minister Dritan Abazović appealed to elect the judges of the Constitutional Court. Commenting on the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Tanja Fajon, who was in Podgorica over the weekend, that there is a great threat of interruption of the EU negotiations if the sixth attempt to complete the Constitutional Court fails, he said that it is one thing to say that there is a risk, and another that it will happen. where are you.
The President of the Social Democrats, Damir Šehović, said yesterday that he believes that after the warning messages about the possibility of blocking Montenegro's path to the EU, it is clear to the parliamentary majority that reaching an agreement on the judges of the Constitutional Court, as well as on the date of the special elections, is a necessary condition for solving the crisis in which " irresponsible government brought Montenegro".
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