The Government of Montenegro, at tonight's electronic session, scheduled a session of the Budva Municipal Assembly for February 11th, at nine o'clock, "Vijesti" unofficially learned.
The Ministry of Public Administration previously proposed that the session be held on January 23, but the Government has not decided on that.
The Law on Local Self-Government (Article 39) stipulates that if the first session of the newly elected assembly is not scheduled no later than 15 days after the announcement of the final election results and is not held no later than 15 days after its convening, the session shall be convened by the executive branch no later than 15 days after the expiration of the prescribed deadline for convening, or holding, the session.
The final results of the Budva elections were announced on December 13 last year, and, according to the law, the deadline for holding the session expired at midnight on January 12. This means that the Government was obliged to convene a new session by January 27, and to hold it no later than 15 days from the convening. The deadline for constituting the Budva Municipal Assembly (by electing its president) expires on February 12. If this work is not completed by then, the head of state Jakov Milatović will be forced to call elections in the tourism metropolis for the third time in the last year.
The constituent session, chaired by the oldest councilor Savo Medigović (Budva Our City), and whose agenda included the election of the speaker of the parliament, was interrupted on January 10. The interruption of the session was caused by the invasion of the municipal hall by supporters of the coalition "For the Future of Budva" led by Mladen Mikijelj, as well as by sympathizers of the group "Budva Our City" led by Nikola Jovanović on the first floor of the building, into the office of the detained mayor of Budva, Milo Božović.
The Budva Municipal Assembly then asked the MPA for an explanation of whether the interrupted constitutive session had ended or could continue. The Ministry, headed by Maraš Dukaj, immediately after completing the administrative supervision in the local parliament, sent the Government a proposal to convene the first session for January 23. The Ministry previously responded to "Vijesti" that they had supervised the implementation of the Law on Local Self-Government in Budva, noting that the session of the newly elected Municipal Assembly was not held in accordance with the provisions of that regulation.
The Alliance "For the Future of Budva" did not allow the continuation of the local parliament session, claiming that it should be led by their representative Krsto Radjenovic and accusing former party comrade Jovanovic of "betraying the electoral will" because he should form a government with the minority support of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
Officials, sympathizers, and activists of two "warring" factions of the former Democratic Front (DF) occupied the parliament hall, claiming that there were persons of security interest in the opposing camp.
Eight councilors from the "Budva Our City" list, two from the European Alliance and one from the Civic Movement (GP) URA, nominated Petar Odžić from the European Alliance for the Speaker of the Parliament.
In the November elections, the lists "For the Future of Budva" and "Budva Our City" each won nine seats in the Municipal Assembly, DPS seven, the Democrats-PES coalition three, the European Union and "Movement for the City" two each, and GP URA one.
Considering that the Budva Municipal Assembly has 33 council seats, in order to form a government, it is necessary for one of the political actors to secure the support of at least 17 "armchairs".
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