The Committee for Electoral Reform will continue its work on Thursday, and any delay due to political friction in the parliamentary majority would be disastrous for its functioning and send a bad message before obtaining the final standards for the chapters on the rule of law, said Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) MP Mihailo Andušić.
Last week, the government withdrew the decision to introduce forced administration in Šavnik, which was a condition of the opposition for the continuation of the work of the Reform Selection Committee.
Anđušić reminded that immediately after the withdrawal of the Government's decision, the DPS welcomed that act and called for a prompt and intensive continuation of the work of the Committee for Electoral Reform, because they are aware of the importance of the overall situation.
"After the initiative of the co-chairman from the opposition and short informal consultations, a new session of the Board was scheduled for June 20, that is, it was agreed to continue the work," Andjušić told the MINA agency.
He added that an accelerated dynamics of the Committee's work and a road map should be agreed upon at that session.
"Any delay in terms of changing topics or breaks caused by political friction in the parliamentary majority would be disastrous for the work of the Committee and send a very bad message to the process of obtaining the final benchmarks that will follow soon," Andušić pointed out.
He said that the responsibility lies predominantly with the parliamentary majority.
"The opposition showed responsibility in this situation from the very beginning, even after the break, because despite this justified reason and conditions for continuation, it did not engage in political and populist blackmail, as was the case in earlier convocations," said Andjušić.
He said that a lot of time has already been spent without justifiable reasons, and that there are more obligations and work than was the case at the start.
Anđušić said that, if the pace and manner of work is in line with what could be seen so far, given the current problems at all levels, he is not optimistic that the Committee for Electoral Reform can do a quality job.
"First of all, I mean the political crisis and the disorientation of the parliamentary majority, the announcement of new electoral processes, new legal solutions and all the acute problems that are in force when it comes to electoral processes", said Andušić.
He pointed out that the explicit position of the DPS regarding the continuation of the Board's work was related to the withdrawal of the Government's Decision on forced administration in Šavnik.
As Anđušić stated, lawlessness, crime and the denial of constitutional rights to the citizens of that municipality was something that the DPS did not want to agree to at any cost.
"It turned out that our demands and arguments were justified and that we won a kind of victory in that situation. I hope to implement the election process in Šavnik as soon as possible by successfully organizing the elections at the remaining polling stations", said Anđušić.
He said that the only possible solution to the crisis in Šavnik is the implementation of the election process at the remaining polling stations, with the coordination of competent state institutions that should ensure the protection of the constitutional and legal order in that municipality and that those political subjects who win those elections legitimately form the government and take over the management of the municipality.
"Any combinatorics other than these, which are legitimate and logical, would return us to the previous state, and boycotting the work of the Committee would, as we pointed out earlier, be only one of the methods by which we would respond to such anarchy," Andjušić pointed out.
The Minister of Public Administration, Maraš Dukaj, submitted to the Assembly an initiative to consider the proposal to introduce direct elections of the municipal president and the proposal to hold elections in all local self-government units on the same day as part of the electoral legislation reform.
Commenting on the initiative, Andušić said that he sees a number of potential advantages, as well as disadvantages, when it comes to the impact of this legal solution on the Montenegrin electoral system.
As he stated, the immediate election of municipal presidents and mayors, as well as elections in one day, are topics and dilemmas that have been imposed and analyzed through electoral legislation for a long time.
"I think that now we have a favorable moment to conduct a dialogue about it in a quality way in the Board, with a special emphasis on the help and opinion of the academic community, the non-governmental sector and a number of state institutions", said Anđušić.
He said that after a comprehensive analysis of the legal solution and potential corrections, primarily at the Board and the Planum, the DPS will decide whether this legal solution represents a step forward for Montenegrin electoral legislation and parliamentary democracy in general.
"My personal opinion is that the mentioned changes have the potential to further rationalize and improve some of the mentioned processes and problems that we face through electoral legislation in practice," Andjušić concluded.
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