The mandates of all local community (MZ) bodies in Bar expired at the end of last year, and the local government has not yet initiated the process of electing new councils and presidents.
The Municipality of Bar justifies this by the inaction of the competent ministry and the delay in adopting the Law on Local Self-Government.
The councils and presidents of local communities (MZ) in Bar were elected in December 2020, for a period of four years, by decision of the Municipal Assembly (MA) of Bar. Their mandate expired in December 2024, but they continue to cover local functions.
The Municipal Assembly appointed them upon the proposal of representatives of political parties, or coalitions represented in the Municipal Assembly of Bar, from among citizens residing in the area of the local community for which the council is appointed, in proportion to the number of votes received in that local community in the last elections held.
In this case, we are talking about the 2018 elections, the last for councilors in the Bar assembly at the time of this decision. At that time, 12 local community councils were appointed, and each elected its own president and secretary.
For this reason, the MZ is headed by people from the ruling coalition, mostly from the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
Council members are elected at citizens' assemblies, which are scheduled to be held 60 days before the expiration of the current term of office, which, so far, no local community council has done.
When asked by "Vijesti" why new local community bodies were not elected, the Municipality of Bar responded that in order to conduct the elections of local community bodies, it is necessary to obtain a certified extract from the register of residence with data on personal name and surname from the competent Ministry of Internal Affairs. Such a register should also contain the unique identification number and address of residence of all adult citizens in the local community area in which the elections are being held, and then be submitted to the local community council. The Bar local government says that these registers are not valid because they lack precision.
"We were unable to obtain a database from the competent ministry that would be applicable in practice for the needs of electing local community bodies, because it does not contain data on the residential addresses of citizens by local community, but rather by settlements and streets, which often pass through multiple local communities in practice," they stated.
Waiting for new regulations
They also said that they relied on the adoption of the new Law on Local Government, which regulates this issue differently, and they expected its adoption by the end of last year.
They state that the existing Decision on Local Communities would then be harmonized with the law, and they would organize the procedure for electing local community bodies.
The local community leaderships did not initiate procedures for conducting the assemblies because there is no adequate database maintained by the competent state administration body, they stated, as well as because of the extension of the deadline for adopting the new Law on Local Self-Government.
The draft Law on Local Self-Government was subject to public debate during 2024, they noted, and after its adoption, the Parliament of Montenegro will consider the provisions in relation to local self-government, and therefore the obligations to adopt a new decision on local self-government according to the same or similar model for all local self-government units.
The draft decision on the Local Community will be subject to public debate, as will all other decisions adopted at the sessions of the Bar Municipal Assembly, the Municipality of Bar announced.
Councilor of the Democrats in the Bar Municipal Assembly Milan Neskovic He told "Vijesti" that the very fact that the mandate of the Local Community Council expired more than nine months ago speaks of the factual meaninglessness of the function of these bodies.
It notes that, pursuant to Article 29 of the Decision on Local Communities, the competent administrative body is obliged to notify the council of the obligation to undertake preparatory actions for initiating the procedure for electing a new local community council at least 60 days before the expiration of its mandate. The competent administrative body has not fulfilled this duty.
The same article of the decision stipulates that for the purposes of elections for council members, the competent local government body, within 15 days from the date of delivery of the notification to the council on the obligation to undertake preparatory actions for initiating the procedure for electing a new council, shall obtain from the competent ministry a certified extract from the register of residence with data on adult citizens in the area of the local community in which the elections are being conducted and submit it to the local community council.
The decision stipulates that the process of electing the council for the new mandate will be completed by the end of the term of the current council, emphasizes Nešković.
They keep old results.
Nešković believes that the essence of the problem lies in Article 27, which stipulates the election of council members in proportion to the number of votes received in that local community in the last local elections.
"This is the reason why the government in Bar is playing dead on the issue of local communities. The current situation suits them because they had council presidents in all local communities. With new elections for local community councils, the situation would change significantly, because the current government won fewer votes than the opposition parties in Topolica, Šušanj, Bjeliši and Sutomore in the last local elections," he pointed out.
As an example, the Bar 1 Topolica Local Council cites, in which the government won 1.973 votes and the opposition 3.378 votes, so the opposition would have a majority in the council and the president of the council.
"The interest of citizens should be above all political calculations and it is necessary to elect new councils and council presidents as soon as possible, so that they can be included in the development of the 2026 budget and the 2026 Spatial Planning Program, key acts that directly affect the development of local communities," says Nešković.
In the town under Rumija, in addition to the DPS, the majority in the municipal assembly is made up of the Social Democrats (SD), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Party (LP), while the opposition benches include the Democrats, Biram Bar, the Bosniak Party, the coalition "For the Future of Bar", United Montenegro and the Movement for Changes.
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