By the votes of the councilors of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Social Democrats (SD), who attended the zoom meeting, the new/old president of the Municipality of Šavnik is Jugoslav Jakić.
The session, which was held via the Zoom application, was attended by 19 councilors from the ruling majority, who voted for Jakić, and one councilor from the Democrats who did not participate in the vote.
The fact that he was elected by councilors whose mandates ended almost three years ago is not a problem for Jakić, because, as he told reporters after the election, councilors' mandates by law last until new ones are elected. In contrast, opposition councilors, who do not attend Zoom sessions because sessions have been held only in that way in tiny Šavnik since two years ago, point out that neither Jakić nor the assembly has any legitimacy, but it seems that neither does the state, which has still, even after almost three years, failed to resolve the Šavnik crisis.
"The public has been given the impression that the mandate of the councilors is not legitimate, primarily due to irresponsible and frivolous statements made by the competent authorities from the Ministry of Public Administration, which should not have been made. And yesterday, the President of the Assembly, in a statement, emphasized that we cannot interpret the law as we need, from situation to situation, from city to city, from circumstance to circumstance," said Jakić.
According to him, the law is clear - the mandate of councilors lasts until the election of new councilors, and during that period they make decisions that are necessary for a city to function.
"That happened today too. That same assembly of councilors made much more important decisions than this one, such as adopting the budget, the most important decision in a municipality, and many of those who are commenting today have not said anything about that issue. And through that we see that they only care about the position of a certain authority, and not essentially what the interests of the citizens are. It is completely clear that there is no sensation here and that the election of the Mayor is the only possible decision so that the city does not come to a standstill and so that the interests of the citizens of Šavnik can be realized," said Jakić.
The election process that began in October 2022, according to him, as far as the DPS is concerned, could be completed as early as Sunday, but that depends on "actors on the other side who do not allow the election process to end."
"I call on them to complete the elections this week and to have this or that mayor next week, according to the election results. We have asked the State Election Commission and the relevant institutions over 200 times to resolve this issue," said the new/old mayor of Šavnik Municipality, adding that he is convinced that the party he is a member of will not pack his bags even after this and many future election processes because members of that party have no reason to pack their bags anywhere, but rather to prepare for the most responsible state positions and finally restore dignity to the state.
At the zoom meeting, the termination of the mandates of the President and Vice-President of the Municipality, Jakić and Dušan Radanović, was noted. Milijana Ašanin was appointed as the Vice-President of the Municipality, while Ratko Perišić was elected as the Director of the Dragišnica and Komarnica Nature Park, because the previous one's mandate had expired.
According to Damir Suljević, a program associate at the Center for Civic Education (CCE) and a member of the State Election Commission (SEC), the only regular way out of the situation in Šavnik is to end the election process, while the introduction of compulsory administration would be illegal.
He told "Vijesti" that it is undeniable that the still unfinished 2022 elections were preceded by political engineering, in which all parties participated, both the local government and the opposition parties, "but the latter are now trying to absolve themselves of that responsibility and shift full responsibility onto the parties of the Šavnica government."
The President of the Parliament, Andrija Mandić, called on the Government to introduce compulsory administration and end the "political agony" in which the Municipality of Šavnik, as well as the Municipality of Kotor, find themselves, believing that "it is the last moment for the Government of Montenegro to convene an electronic session and urgently introduce compulsory administration in Šavnik and Kotor and prevent further distortion of democratic principles and the will of the people who have dedicated their lives to these regions."
Minister of Public Administration Maraš Dukaj reminded yesterday that the situation in the Šavnik Municipal Assembly did not happen yesterday, but has been going on for the third calendar year, and if it continues like this, everyone will "assume the right to interpret the law to suit their political needs". He reminded Mandić and the Prime Minister, Milojko Spajić, that the Ministry he heads sent the Parliament and the Government Information on the need to urgently resolve problems in the local self-government system at the end of last month, but that they have not received a response, and they do not see any reaction either. He called on the councilors of the Šavnik Municipal Assembly to make decisions in accordance with the principles of democratic accountability and "not to give themselves more rights than the Constitution gives them".
The President of the Šavnik Municipal Assembly, Nadežda Kotlica, told Dukaj yesterday that everything in that municipality is done according to the Constitution and the law and that nowhere, as in Šavnik, "has the state trampled on the citizen as the bearer of sovereignty and prevented him from exercising his right to vote and electing government at the local level through directly and freely elected councilors."
"Why the election process has not yet been completed does not depend on us, but rather on state institutions," said Kotlica, adding that it appears that the minister is not interpreting the law equally for everyone.
DPS announced yesterday that the solution to the crisis in Šavnik and Kotor is to complete the election process in both cities and announce the final election results, while the Coalition "For the Future of Šavnik" believes that the problem was caused by the DPS Municipal Board in Šavnik and their headquarters in Podgorica and that "without prosecuting them, there is no solution to this problem."
Europe Now Movement (PES) MP Vasilije Čarapić assessed yesterday that the announced election of the mayor of Šavnik by the illegitimate municipal assembly would represent an unprecedented act of collapse of the constitutional and legal order, which would open the door to political anarchy, the consequences of which are difficult to imagine. He called on SD to call on their councilors not to participate in this "political suicide" and thereby demonstrate in action that their "prepaid moralizing" has some basis.
The government decided to impose compulsory administration in Šavnik in April last year, but the president, Jakov Milatović, did not call elections. He explained at the time that, given that the mandate of the current Municipal Assembly expired in June 2022, its dissolution by a government decision after the expiration of the term for which it was elected could not result in the calling of new elections.
The mandate of local assemblies lasts four years, and the Šavnica assembly was constituted at the end of June 2018. The local elections that began in the fall of 2022 have not yet been completed in that municipality. Jakić was elected Mayor of the Municipality on February 18, 2021, when he replaced his party colleague Vlatko Vuković, who resigned.
At two polling stations, in the Municipality building and in the village of Kruševice, where 541 voters are eligible to vote, voting took place nine times, the last time on December 18, 2022, when the elections were again interrupted, because representatives of the coalition "For the Future of Šavnik" did not allow newly registered voters to vote. The State Election Commission regularly holds sessions at which it acts on complaints regarding the elections in Šavnik and issues the same decision (there are over 150 of them) ordering the Municipal Election Commission of Šavnik to make a decision on repeating the elections. However, when the MEC president schedules a session, the results of the vote on repeating the elections are such that a decision cannot be made - four votes in favor and four abstentions.
So far, dozens of people have been prosecuted before the judicial authorities for events related to the elections in Šavnik, which included numerous incidents, breaking ballot boxes, tearing up ballots, preventing voters from voting, and there were also physical clashes.
And while everyone is shifting responsibility to someone else, the election "papazjanija" continues in Šavnik, and the media in the country and the region continue to report on the "power of Šavnik" to violate the Constitution and laws, and the state's inability to put things right even after three years.
Čupić: An Unprecedented Act of Legal Violence
"At today's session, councilors are voting in an illegitimate Assembly," said Snežana Čupić, who said she did not know whether she could be considered a councilor of New Serbian Democracy, considering that Jakić shortened the mandate of the councilors of the Šavnik Municipal Assembly at the end of March 2023.
"By shortening his term, his function as president also ends," said Čupić, adding that councilors from the "For the Future of Šavnik" coalition have not attended sessions since the 2022 elections.
"His election as president is an unprecedented act of legal violence and it represents a legal precedent in a country," said Čupić.
As for the unfinished elections, she said that the DPS was to blame for that, as it "engineered several hundred voters to win power."
"Let me just point out that in 2018, 1.395 voters were registered on the electoral roll, and in 2022, there were 1.968. That speaks volumes about what this is about. This caused a revolt among the citizens of Šavnik who did not allow electoral engineering and who stood up for their constitutionally guaranteed rights that no one else can decide about our municipality but the citizens who live there," said Čupić.
The President of the Municipality of Šavnik said that although opposition councilors do not attend assembly sessions, they regularly "take the privileges that are due to councilors."
"We are not returning the money we receive as councilors, because their councilors, whose mandates were also terminated, are not returning that money either. It's the same thing," said Čupić.
Cerović: Silence and inaction approve of lawlessness in Šavnik
The leader of the "For the Future of Šavnik" coalition list in the elections starting in 2022, Gavrilo Cerović, told "Vijesti" that it is difficult to comment on the "lawlessness that occurred in Šavnik with the election of the mayor of the municipality."
"The councilors who shortened their mandates in March last year, submitted their resignations and this was published in the Official Gazette of Montenegro, are 'resurrected' and making illegal decisions, such as adopting the budget and electing the mayor. The mayor 'resurrected' the councilors in July last year and re-elected them, and I guess by law they elect him, not him electing them," said Cerović.
He believes that the state government, both legislative and executive, is approving lawlessness in Šavnik through silence and inaction, and that the recently adopted state capital budget best shows what they think about that municipality.
"There is zero euros in the capital budget for the most underdeveloped measure, the municipality. With this, they have shown their attitude towards Šavnik, but also the north of Montenegro. These days we will probably block the Nikšić - Šavnik - Žabljak road for a longer period of time. When they don't need Šavnik, let them go another way," Cerović said.
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