After a six-day blockade of the main road Šavnik - Žabljak, from 13.45:15 p.m. to 12.30 p.m., members and supporters of the coalitions "For the Future of Šavnik" and "Let's Go People" began a two-hour blockade of the aforementioned road yesterday, at the entrance to Šavnik, from 14.30:2022 p.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. The blockade will last five days, and after that, if it does not yield the desired results, they plan to probably extend the blockade to three hours. The reason for the blockade is the electoral crisis that has been going on since XNUMX, since the local elections in Šavnik, which have not been completed to this day, and the re-election of Jugoslav Jakić (DPS) as mayor.
"The competent institutions are still silent and no one is making an official statement. The protest is the only thing left for us. Tomorrow we will agree on what and how to proceed," Gavrilo Cerović, the leader of the "For the Future of Šavnik" list, told "Vijesti", repeating that the multi-year political crisis in that municipality was caused by election tourism, and that it culminated in Jakić's re-election as mayor.
The blockade, which began on February 27, is organized by the coalitions "For the Future of Šavnik" (NSD, SNP, DNP) and "Let's Go People" (DCG, UCG, PES).
Today, the president of the Socialist People's Party (SNP), Vladimir Joković, provided support to the citizens of Šavnik, saying that the fact that in Šavnik one mandate is worth about 40 votes, and that there are 380 more voters on their electoral roll than the municipality has residents, speaks volumes about the extent of electoral engineering, and that the "DPS manipulations" continued with the re-election of Jakić.
"Thus, the citizens of Šavnik gained power in 2025 with the votes of councilors, who were elected in 2018. To make the absurdity greater, these same councilors shortened their own mandate in March 2024. Such a situation has not been recorded in European practice. The truth is that we have failed as a system, and we have failed the citizens of Šavnik the most. I am very aware that the responsibility for resolving this situation lies with the institutions of the system - the President of Montenegro, the Parliament of Montenegro and the Government of Montenegro," said the SNP leader.
As he pointed out, it is politically irresponsible to shift responsibility from one institution to another, but they must find a way to stop "the arbitrariness of the DPS, which finds a mechanism in every municipality to block electoral processes."
"At the same time, we give full support to the true residents of Šavnik, who defend the Constitution of Montenegro, which clearly states that a government cannot be established or recognized that does not stem from the freely expressed will of citizens in democratic elections," Joković said.
By the votes of councilors from the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Social Democrats (SD), who attended the zoom meeting, Jakić was elected as the new/old president of the Municipality of Šavnik on February 19.
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, according to the law, councilors' mandates last until new ones are elected.
In contrast, opposition councilors, who do not attend Zoom sessions because in Šavnik, sessions have only been held in this way since two years ago, point out that neither Jakić nor the assembly has any legitimacy.
The local elections that began in the fall of 2022, when they were held in 13 municipalities, have not yet been completed in that municipality. At two polling stations, in the Municipality building and in the village of Kruševice, where 541 voters have the right 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 more than 200 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 boxes, tearing up ballots, preventing voters from voting, and there were even physical clashes. The Šavnik opposition constantly emphasizes that no one has yet been punished for election tourism.
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