Part of the opposition plans to ask the authorities for guarantees that the software for controlling census data will be developed, "Vijesti" has learned unofficially.
According to "Vijesti" information, those parties are considering the option of demanding from the authorities that a specification on the control software be prepared before the start of the population census, or that a contract on the development of that program be signed.
A source from one of those parties states that they intend to ask for guarantees because they do not trust the government and cannot rely on the software to be built after the census begins.
"We want to be sure that the software will be created," said the interlocutor.
He notes that it is questionable whether that work can be done by Thursday (November 30), when the census is scheduled to begin, and that they therefore think the census should be delayed for as long as it takes to get assurances about the software.
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While the authorities say that there will be no postponement of the census and that it will be held from November 30 to December 15, the opposition has been repeating for days that they will not participate in the process until all their demands regarding its control are met. The agreement signed at the beginning of the week by those parties, the Government and councils/councils of minority peoples and minority national communities foresees the expansion of census commissions, control of the input of collected data, development of software for their verification, prohibition of parties to conduct a census campaign...
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The software should control data on national (ethnic) affiliation, religion and language, and it is not needed at least until the entry of the collected data into the system is completed, which should happen at the end of January next year.
In order to create it, several steps need to be taken, the first of which is the change to the Census Act, which was announced today. The amendments provide for the Government to form a commission that would prepare a specification for announcing an advertisement for the development of software, a specification for an advertisement for the selection of an IT company from a member state of the European Union for software code revision, which would monitor the implementation of tender procedures in both cases and monitor the application of the software.
By-laws concerning the issue of software will, as it is written in the proposal for amendments to the law, be adopted within ten days from the entry into force of the amendments.
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Acting President of the Democratic Party of Socialists Danijel Zivkovic, told the Mina agency the day before yesterday that this party will not participate in the census until the last requirement specified in the agreement signed with the prime minister is fulfilled. Milojko Spajić. He assessed that it is not realistic to expect that the opposition's demands will be met by November 30, and that the specification for the software development tender will be prepared by then.
He emphasizes that if the Government starts implementing the census, and the demands of the opposition are not met, then there will be no confidence in that procedure.
"Then that process will not be able to be carried out, because we will apply different mechanisms, which will make it impossible to carry out the census until all the demands we have agreed on are fulfilled", said Živković, announcing that the strongest opposition party will at the beginning of the week, when as he said, let it be clear which of the conditions to realistically implement, to determine whether they will participate in the census.
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President of the Assembly and one of the leaders of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro (ZBCG) Andrija Mandic, said the night before last that the census begins on November 30 and that this is the agreement of the parliamentary majority.
"That is the decision of the Government of Montenegro. The census was supposed to take place in 2021, and it should be repeated. At that time, no one prevented colleagues from the opposition from intervening with these changes... We can achieve everything that the government and the opposition have agreed upon. At the collegium (of the Speaker of the Parliament), I will open the story about the formation of a temporary parliamentary committee that would deal with it," Mandic told TV Prva.
The census was supposed to take place from November 1 to 15, but Spajić's government immediately postponed it. The decision followed after a part of the opposition and national councils/councils requested it, saying that there are no conditions for conducting the enumeration because, among other things, control of the process is not ensured. Some of the parties also announced a boycott, obstructing the work of census commissions led by their representatives.
Today they form a monitoring committee?
Today, the parliamentary majority should propose amendments to the changes to the Law on the Census at the proposal of the Democrats, so that the members of the census commissions would not be public officials.
The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption announced on Thursday that the members of the census commissions are also public officials and that they must report their income and assets to it.
In the explanation of the amendment, it is written that the members of census commissions, due to their scope of work, but also temporary engagement, should not have the status of public officials, and that this could demotivate them to apply for work in these bodies.
In addition to the amendments to the Census Act, the Parliament should today, according to information from TV Vijesta, form a temporary committee that will monitor the census process, and which will include the government and the opposition on a parity basis, as well as representatives of the councils/councils of minority nations.
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