Ašanin seeks return of mandate: Due to Abazović's desire for power, a lost chance to be sent into opposition alongside DPS and DF

In an open letter addressed to Dritan Abazović, president of the Civic Movement URA, Ivan Ašanin, the leader of that party's list in the last local elections in Mojkovac, requested the return of his mandate.

Ašanin is a former member of the Main Board (GO) of GP URA, a former member of the Presidency of that party, and a former vice president of the Municipality of Mojkovac.

In the letter, he criticizes the way in which the election of the deputy mayor of the municipality was put on the agenda in Mojkovac, allegedly without transparency and through "Viber sessions".

He claims that positions are being distributed without public scrutiny and in accordance with the order of the electoral list, and that this is neglecting the development of the city in favor of personal and party interests.

He explains that the vice-presidential position, which belongs to URA and to which he believed he was entitled as the leader of the list, was awarded to another candidate from the list, which, he claims, is "unfair and politically motivated."

"I would like to point out that I was not only the first on the list, but also the leader of the list in the last local elections. My name is in the name of the list, which means in the legal sense the leader of the list, which is 'Mojkovac URA – mr Ivan Ašanin – Be Responsible – Mojkovac Can Do It'. I ask you to return part of my merit, which is the councilor's mandate, because I rejected every function, as well as the opportunity, both in the URA and in the local government in Mojkovac. I would like to remind you that when the GP URA was founded in 2016, at the invitation of Žarko Rakčević, the Independent List 'For Mojkovac – mr Ivan Ašanin' contributed the first two mandates to the formation of the GP URA. I also left two mandates in the local parliament in Mojkovac under my leadership in 2025. It will be a mental noun for you at the local level for the coming period and a pluperfect tense in your future activities in Mojkovac," says Ašanin.

He also recalls that in the 2021 local elections, as president of the URA Mojkovac local government, he participated in the organization and, as he states, the prevention of "phantom voters" and "voter tourism", and contributed to the removal of the DPS government in Mojkovac. Ašanin also explained why he distanced himself from the URA local government.

"Due to poor functioning, ignorance and inaction, halfway through my term as the Vice President of the Municipality, I publicly pointed out that the people of Mojkovac and Mojkovac do not deserve and did not ask for such changes. The DF replaced the DPS, the system was only replaced and changed for the worse. That is why I asked that we oppose this phenomenon more energetically and prevent all this because we had a mechanism. It did not happen, and this is what I asked for as the Vice President of the Municipality. Let me remind you of the reasons for my departure: because of your excessive desire for power, after the elections in June 2023, Montenegro lost the historic chance to send DPS and DF into opposition, which I advocated for on the Party Presidency, as did the majority in the Civic Platform," Ašanin wrote.

He claims that the argument in the civic bloc occurred just seven days before the elections, because of Do Kwon. Ašanin claims that Abazović knows very well who and why Do Kwon, as he says, installed him in Montenegro.

"That's why Montenegro has returned to the pre-referendum state in the jaws of DPS and DF, who had to be together in the opposition benches after the June 2023 elections. Those who have been arguing with the Montenegrin people for 20 years had to be behind political bars, and many of them behind other people's bars as well. Of course, this does not only apply to you, it takes two to argue and love," said the former leader of the GP URA list in the local elections in Mojkovac.

He recalls that, as he says, after the Podgorica local elections and attempts at public flirtation with DPS in January 2025, and after a series of policy failures by URA, he was left with the task of "raising anchor".

He also claims that URA, through various moves, "grounded its ship to the point of sinking", which, he states, was proven in the Nikšić local elections in April 2025.