By filling a vacant parliamentary seat without informing the State Election Commission (SEC), the Parliament of Montenegro violated elementary legal procedures and exceeded its constitutionally defined competencies - claim the interlocutors of "Vijesti", saying that in this way the parliamentarians could have "appointed" anyone from the electoral lists as an MP.
President of the Assembly Andrija Mandic (New Serbian Democracy) on Wednesday, without a letter from the SEC, confirmed the parliamentary mandate of the previous Consul General of Montenegro in New York. To Adel Omeragić, who will represent the Bosniak Party (BS) in the highest legislative chamber. Omeragić will replace Admir Adrović, who resigned from his position at the end of December last year.
A member of the SEC claims that the procedure was violated and that Mandić should not have granted Omeragić a mandate based on a letter signed by 55 parliamentarians - instead of based on the SEC's notification, as prescribed by the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives. Damir Suljević, but also lawyers with whom "Vijesti" spoke unofficially.
However, none of the parliamentarians who did not sign the letter reacted to such a move by the Speaker of the Assembly and the MPs who requested it from him.
The competence of the SEC is prescribed by Article 33 of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives, which states, among other things, that this institution submits reports to the legislative house on the filling of vacant parliamentary seats.
The letter asking Mandić to confirm Omeragić's mandate was signed by MPs from the ruling BS, Europe Now Movement, New Serbian Democracy, Democrats, Socialist People's Party, CIVIS and Albanian Forum, as well as the opposition Democratic People's Party, Croatian Civic Initiative, United Montenegro, and some independent MPs (Dragan Bojović, Jevrosima Pejović, Radinka Ćinćur i Miodrag Laković).
In the letter that Mandić read at the session, the deputies stated, among other things, that the SEC has been continuously having problems in its work, since the previous president of that institution Nikola Mugoša resigned due to the election as a judge of the Constitutional Court, and that he did not leave any authority that would have avoided this situation (the inability to fill the vacant position).
According to new legal regulations, the SEC should be transformed into the Central Election Commission (CEC), whose members have not yet been elected by the Parliament - two competitions were unsuccessful, and the election procedure for the third is underway.
Damir Suljević assesses that the dysfunction of the umbrella electoral institution is precisely the result of the Parliament's own lack of promptness, which, despite warnings, did not resolve the problem in time, but is instead using the blockade as a justification for assuming jurisdiction that does not belong to it.
"It is particularly worrying that as many as 55 MPs supported the request that opened 'Pandora's Box', but also that 25 opposition MPs remained silent on such a move, thus creating an atmosphere of general agreement on the issue," he said.
According to him, given that the unblocking of the SEC, or the election of the CEC, is still not in sight, the question arises whether the Parliament will in the future take over other tasks from "others'" jurisdiction, such as those of the CEC - to call local elections. As he added, if this is the direction being taken, then the question of the meaning of the existence of the institution itself is rightly raised.
The Assembly did not respond to "Vijesti"'s question about why Mandić violated the law by confirming the mandate of a BS MP based on the MP's letter.
One of the lawyers with whom the editorial team spoke unofficially explained that, according to procedure, the SEC was supposed to hold a session and then submit a report to the Parliament on filling the parliamentary seat. However, the SEC is not functional because it does not have a president, and, as he stated, no amendments have been made to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives that would define the function of the chairman until the election of the SEC president.
"This way, based on the letter, they could fill the vacant parliamentary seat with anyone, someone who is not next on the list...", the interlocutor warned.
He recalled the situation with the former Civic Movement (GP) MP URA Suadom Zoronjić - to whom the Assembly, also without a letter from the SEC, confirmed the mandate - emphasizing that in her case it was about obstruction in the SEC, which, he says, is not happening now, but rather "the institution is being bypassed."
On December 28, 2020, the SEC refused to verify the mandate of Zoronjić, who was elected from the “Black and White” list, after the Assembly informed the Commission that Filip Adzic (GP URA) resigned. Five members of the SEC declared themselves in the negative, later explaining that they did not refuse to verify the mandate of the MP GP URA, but, as they claimed, the legal conditions for filling the vacant parliamentary seat had not been met beforehand. They said that the “termination of the mandate of MP Adžić was not legally and validly established, due to the lack of a quorum for the beginning of the session of the Assembly”.
After the SEC failed to do its job, the Assembly decided to confirm Zoronjić's mandate.
MANDIC ASKED TO "PROTECT THE CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER"
The letter from 55 MPs, dated April 8, states that the situation in the SEC violates the constitutional obligation for the Assembly to have a full composition, but also raises the issue of determining the necessary majorities for decision-making, including a two-thirds (54 MPs) and a three-fifths majority (49 MPs), which may lead to legal uncertainty and blockage of decision-making.
Therefore, they asked Mandić to confirm Omeragić's mandate, "in order to protect the constitutional order and the smooth functioning of institutions."
Before yesterday's decision, proposals were heard from the Parliament to overcome the problem - from having SEC members "find a solution within the institution and authorize a person who will sign salaries and all other administrative matters", to having "the SEC secretary cover the powers of the president until his election".
Suljević recently told "Vijesti" that the authorization given to any member of the SEC would in any case be limited by the term of office of the person granting the authorization - in this case, the term of office of the previous SEC president. He warned that any further action under such authorization, without the full mandate of the person granting the authorization, would be contrary to the law.
Suljević also said that "the commission decides on filling a vacant parliamentary seat at a session, which cannot be scheduled, nor does the secretary have the authority to schedule it," but that it can only be scheduled by the SEC president or a person designated by him.
BS informed the Parliament on March 9 that Omeragić would be the new MP
On March 9, BS sent a letter to the Parliament in which, "based on Article 104 of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives", it stated that after Adrović's resignation, one parliamentary seat on the BS list had become vacant, and that this seat, according to the established order of candidates, belonged to Omeragić, as the next candidate on the list.
Article 104 of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives stipulates that, if the mandate of a councilor or representative elected from a coalition electoral list expires, the candidate will be elected as a councilor or representative according to the order of the constituent list to which he or she belongs.
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