The performance of the Committee for the Reform of Electoral Legislation will largely determine the speed of Montenegrin's path to the European Union, said the EU Delegation in Podgorica.
"A boycott of the institution is certainly not in the interest of the European integration process of Montenegro. As has been repeatedly emphasized, in order for Montenegro to progress in its ambitious plan to join the EU as soon as possible, political actors must put their differences aside and support key reforms from the European agenda for the sake of the common good. Electoral reform is certainly one of those key reforms," the Delegation said in response to the News' questions about the opposition's decision to boycott the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform and whether they believe it is possible to reach a consensus on a short deadline (by the end of the year) in order to adopt amendments to the Law on Financing Political Parties and Election Campaigns.
The delegation, they said, welcomes the recent extension of the mandate of the Parliamentary Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform and encourages all political actors to prioritize the remaining work on electoral reform, "including reaching a broad political agreement to hold all local elections on the same day, in order to end the situation of almost continuous election campaigns".
On Tuesday, the opposition left the Committee for Electoral Reform due to the events at the Constitutional Committee, when it was stated that the judge of the Constitutional Court, Dragana Đuranović, had ceased to function. Since the Committee for Electoral Reform has an equal number of members from the government and the opposition (eight each), there is no quorum for the work if the opposition leaves.
The first task of that body was the preparation of the Draft Amendments to the Law on the Financing of Political Parties, which was supposed to be at the public hearing from December 18.
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