Today, the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) submitted to the Constitutional Court an initiative for the review of the constitutionality of the amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government (ZLS) concerning the postponement of local elections.
They called on the Constitutional Court to initiate appropriate procedures as soon as possible and to declare our initiative as soon as possible.
"The amendments to the ZLS are not harmonized with other laws in the legal system of Montenegro, and the inconsistency with the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament (ZIOP) is particularly important, which is a law of greater legal force. These changes, in addition to being inconsistent with the laws, also contradict Article 91 of the Constitution of Montenegro, which regulates the hierarchy of legal acts, that is, specifies which acts are adopted by qualified majorities," said CDT Deputy Executive Director Biljana Papović.
According to Papović, these changes violated both international election standards and the international legal framework, which proclaim the regular holding of election processes except in exceptional, extraordinary situations.
According to her, the amendments to the ZLS served as a basis for the President of Montenegro to postpone the election processes in a large number of Montenegrin municipalities without citing valid reasons.
"The President, namely, changed his own decision on holding elections and scheduled the elections for a new, postponed date for October 23. In this way, he acted contrary to Article 14 paragraph 2 of the ZOIP, which stipulates that from the day the elections are announced until the elections of councilors are held, i.e. The term of office of a deputy cannot be less than 60 nor more than 100 days," stated Papović.
She also points out that such behavior of Đukanović is particularly worrying when we bear in mind that in December 2021, he called the attempt of another parliamentary majority to postpone the elections in a similar way "obstruction of democracy and obstruction of the electoral process".
"This way of acting by the President and the Parliament of Montenegro leads to a dangerous precedent, i.e. the illegal postponement of elections without a valid reason, which can further mean that any parliamentary majority, for which it is in their political interest, can postpone local elections as they wish," she said. is Papovic.
After this understanding of democracy and the legal order by the President and the Assembly, the CDT says that the Constitutional Court remains the last defense of rights and democratic principles.
They appealed to the Constitutional Court to put their initiative on the agenda as soon as possible and to conduct a transparent procedure of declaring about it.
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