The candidate for Supreme State Prosecutor (VDT) Milorad Marković has a great chance of being elected to that position at the end of January, because, apart from the majority of ruling parties, some opposition parties should also support him - "Vijesti" unofficially learns.
So far, it is likely that all ruling parties will vote for that candidate except for Milan Knežević's Democratic People's Party (DNP), which will decide on this depending on Marković's statement on the "coup d'état" case.
Without four DNP MPs, the ruling majority has 42 votes in parliament, which means that at least seven more are needed to elect Marković (49 in total). According to "Vijesti" unofficial information, the votes could come from the opposition Bosniak Party (BS), Social Democrats (SD) and United Montenegro (United).
BS, which has six MPs, unofficially told "Vijesta" that they have not yet formally decided whether they will support Marković, but that there are indications that they will vote for him.
"We expect him to show proactive action in terms of detecting and prosecuting war crimes," said the interlocutor from BS.
A source from the SD states that even that party, which has three parliamentarians, does not yet have an official position on Marković, but that they are leaning towards supporting him.
"Viještina" was unofficially told by United that their (one) member of parliament will most likely vote for that candidate. The interlocutor from that party says that he thinks that the entire special club of deputies, in which there are two other deputies with the United representative, will vote for Marković.
If all those parties and MPs supported that candidate, he would get 54 votes. Some ruling parties officially announced their support for Marković, while others hinted at it.
When it comes to the rest of the opposition, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) did not tell Vijesti who they would support as head of the prosecution, while the Citizens' Movement (GP) URA unofficially said that they would make a decision next week.
Yesterday, at the request of the ruling majority, the President of the Assembly Andrija Mandić scheduled an extraordinary session of the Parliament for Saturday, January 27, at which the VDT will be voted on.
DON'T MISS IT
Apart from Marković, the candidates for that position are the former acting (acting) VDT Maja Jovanović and the judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica Suzana Mugoša.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, the election of the VDT in the second round is done by secret ballot. The ballot contains the names of the candidates, and each of them is preceded by a serial number. Voting is done by circling the ordinal number in front of only one name.
Given the procedure, it is not possible to know whether, who and how voted in the election of candidates, unless the secrecy of the vote is violated.
In the first round of voting, at the end of December last year, candidate Jovanović did not receive the required majority of 54 votes. In the second round, the VDT is selected from among all candidates who meet the legal requirements. Apart from Jovanović, there are also Marković and Mugoša.
V. d. the situation in the VDT has been going on since October 2019. The head of the prosecution is currently Tatjana Begović, who is second in command. d. the mandate expires on February 8.
Jovanović has been in the prosecutor's organization for over twenty years, and on February 5, 2022, the Prosecutor's Council (TS) chose him to perform the function v. d. VDT, where she served for two terms. During those mandates, and at her suggestion, the Supreme Court elected a new chief special prosecutor, Vladimir Novović, and then several investigations were launched that resulted in indictments against the former heads of the judiciary.
Marković is a master of legal sciences with many years of experience in the field of rule of law - human rights, justice, criminal law and confiscation of property benefits. He worked at the Faculty of Law and as an expert/consultant on EU, Council of Europe, OSCE, UNDP projects...
Suzana Mugoša started her career in 1995 in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica as an intern, and in 1999 she was elected as an advisor. After five years, she resigned and was elected a judge of the Basic Court in Podgorica, and then progressed in the judicial system. She tried the "Zavala" case, and also delivered the first-instance verdict in the "coup d'état" case, in which the leaders of the "For the Future of Montenegro" coalition, Mandić and Knežević, were accused.
Knežević: We don't expect the VDT to release us, but to keep quiet about the farce
Milan Knežević told "Vijesta" that the DNP has not changed its position on what their condition is for the election of VDT, adding that neither the "favorite" nor the "outsiders" for that position will have the support of that party if they do not clearly define themselves "according to which are the facts, and they refer to the abuses of the then leading people in the Montenegrin judiciary in the procedure known as the 'coup d'état'".
According to him, this is in no way a pressure on the candidates, because, according to him, the competences of the VDT are clearly defined by law.
"And although great, no one expects the future VDT to declare us free, but even less do we expect everyone to be silent on the evidence of buying the judgment at the Court of Appeal, the proven abuses of Milivoj Katnić and Saša Čađenović, the correspondence of Vesna Medenica and Suzana Mugoša, and everything that clearly indicates that this judicial farce against us was a joint criminal organization with the aim of constitutionally banning the DF and our long-term imprisonment in the justice of God", says Knežević.
Session scheduled contrary to the Rules of Procedure
Since, according to the Constitution, an extraordinary session is convened at the request of the President of the State, the Government or at least a third of the deputies, and since, according to the Rules of Procedure, the applicant can propose only proposals of his author for the agenda of the session, it is disputed that the election of the VDT was extraordinary in front of the deputies. This is due to the fact that the head of state, the government and a third of the deputies are not nominators of candidates for the VDT, so they cannot demand an extraordinary session. The proposal is determined by the TS, and it is considered by the Committee for the Political System, Judiciary and Administration.
However, previous parliamentary majorities repeatedly violated the Constitution and Rules of Procedure and scheduled sessions with items on the agenda that could not be discussed in an extraordinary manner, such as the election of members of the Judicial Council and judges of the Constitutional Court.
Bonus video:
