Acting (acting) president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Danijel Živković, said this evening that if the party's demands regarding the control of the population census are not met, it will stand by its decision to boycott the process.
After the meeting of the opposition with the newly elected Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, he told the journalists that the goal of the DPS is not that the census is not held, but that it be organized in accordance with positive legal regulations, the applied methodology and the conditions of control of that process.
"The main goal is to get accurate and relevant data. We said that our goal is not that the census is not held; it should be held without any conditions, especially from the coalition for the future of Montenegro (ZBCG), which took over the control mechanisms in to the Assembly, and we should do that in a good spirit and dialogue. I believe that we will continue what we started at the meeting," said Živković.
The meeting with Spajić in the Government was also attended by Živković's party colleague Nikola Janović, leader and deputy of the Social Democrats (SD) Damir Šehović and Boris Mugoša, and the president and vice-president of the Bosniak Party (BS) Ervin Ibrahimović and Damir Gutić.
When asked if he believes that the opposition's demands can be met in a month, which is the time left until the census, Živković replied that he would not "schedule" it, but that it is questionable whether it can happen within that period.
"Today (Spajić's) meeting was held with the representatives of the national councils, I believe that maybe in the next few days a meeting should be organized with the representatives of the civil sector... We are not talking about deadlines, but about the essence - to get accurate and relevant data and that everyone they have confidence in this process," added the head of DPS.
Živković said that he appreciated Spajić's willingness to open a dialogue on the census.
"Whether there will be a willingness to meet all demands to the end - I cannot say that, because it depends on the other side. We will not give up on our demands until the end. If our demands are not met, we will continue with our relationship which was announced - that we will boycott such a census," he underlined.
Asked if they were ready to give up part of the demand, he replied that the fact that they were ready to talk was a sign that they wanted to reach "the very essence" through a compromise.
"And I said what is the essence... I believe that in the coming period we will have enough consensus that special, specialized teams work on harmonizing positions. I believe that, in relation to the dynamics of obligations, a new meeting will take place soon. I cannot to say that I am an optimist based on one conversation. Only when we receive answers from the prime minister that they are ready to discuss the demands we have made, then we can say whether we will be optimistic," Živković concluded.
After the meeting, the Government announced that opinions were exchanged and suggestions were made regarding the preparation and implementation of the process, "and expressed willingness to contribute with the best intentions to the implementation of the Census as one of the most important processes for tracing the overall social development".
"The interlocutors expressed their willingness to reach the broadest consensus on this important issue," the Government announced.
SD leader Damir Šehović assessed that the meeting with Spajić was useful.
"We pointed out that we are concerned about the entire process. We have the right to suspect that the process is prepared to achieve some political ambitions that are harmful to Montenegro through the misuse of data. We will use all legal means to prevent abuses. But we are ready to negotiate around this process so that there are no abuses. We have nothing against the census, but we do have something against someone's political agenda," he told reporters.
Šehović stated that the opposition wants to have maximum trust in enumerators, to have control mechanisms at the level of census commissions, to create a software solution for additional control...
"We are looking for the conditions that the opposition had in 2011. We got the impression that the prime minister understood our argument. I believe that there will be enough sense to reach a compromise. We would not be slaves to dates. When the environment is such that we can hold the census, we will say - yes Until then, we will be boycotting. The date is not important here, but the environment and control mechanisms. When we agree on that, the opposition will express interest in participating in the census," stated the head of the SD.
BS officials did not make statements after the meeting.
Spajić's meeting with the representatives of the opposition parties started around 16:17.50 PM and lasted until around XNUMX:XNUMX PM.
Yesterday, Spajić's government passed a decree postponing the population census for the period from November 30 to December 15.
The census was originally planned to take place from November 1 to 15.
Part of the opposition demanded the postponement of the census, claiming that there are currently no conditions for its implementation, and part of them announced a boycott.
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