Did they hinder the election for the Prosecutorial Council?

Social Democrat MP and Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Political System, Judiciary and Administration, Nikola Zirojević, said ahead of the session of that body, at which a consultative hearing with candidates for distinguished lawyers in the Prosecutorial Council will be held today, as well as the session of the Constitutional Committee at which a proposal for the election of two judges of the Constitutional Court will be determined, that pressure from international partners has begun to yield results.

He emphasized that it was quite clear that issues such as the election of the remaining members of the Constitutional Court, the Judicial Council, and the Prosecutorial Council were not among the priorities of the current parliamentary majority, although they should be.

"It appears that this was a deliberate blockade, in order to weaken the mechanisms of control of the judicial and prosecutorial authorities, and to create a politically favorable majority in the aforementioned bodies," Zirojević assessed.

The agenda of the Legislative Committee session will include a proposal for the election of two new judges to the Supreme Court from 13 candidates who applied for the public call announced at the end of last year.

The Committee on the Political System, Judiciary and Administration is scheduled to hold a consultative hearing today with two members of the TS who have applied for public notice and are distinguished lawyers, but who are not attorneys.

This call was issued at the end of May, and the Committee has not announced which prominent lawyers have applied.

As Vijesti previously reported, candidates were submitted by lawyers - secretary at the Faculty of Political Sciences Sekule Raičević and public bailiff from Bar Veselin Šćepanović. In previous procedures, as many as 30 candidates applied for TS representatives.

Today, the Committee will also hold a hearing on the proposal of the Bar Association, attorney Sanja Radulović.

Legal advisor of the Human Rights Action, Amra Bajrović, told Vijesti that it was obvious that the MPs had other priorities in the previous period - they were dealing with a large number of proposed legal solutions, many of which were not in line with the Constitution, human rights and international standards.

"For the umpteenth time, we are witnessing indolence towards issues that are important for the functioning of the judiciary. Political will is once again not in line with the processes that should ensure the efficiency and independence of the Prosecutorial Council," she stated.

Bajrović stated that they are appealing to MPs to show responsibility and to elect new members of the Prosecutorial Council as soon as possible, because any further delay further weakens the efficiency of that body.

"I would like to remind you that the inertia and misinterpretation of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office by members of the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration have already caused the missing members of the previous convocation not to be elected for almost a year. This must not happen again, and MPs must show responsibility and understand what the priorities are," she stated.

The Prosecutors' Council has been operating with a reduced membership since the summer, but it has a quorum for decision-making because the prosecutors' organization elected members who come from their organization.

For Bajrović, the fact that only two candidates applied to the Judiciary Committee's advertisement may, on the one hand, indicate a lack of trust among the professional public in the political and institutional environment in which the election is being conducted.

"Therefore, it means a willingness to conduct the proceedings transparently and without political calculations. On the other hand, it may also mean a weak motivation of reputable lawyers to contribute to the work of the Prosecutorial Council and thus inevitably expose themselves to public pressure and politicized discourse," she believes.

The Prosecutorial Council has already twice called on the Parliament to elect the missing reputable lawyers to fill that body.

"Completing the composition of the Prosecutorial Council is, among other things, a prerequisite for the work of the Evaluation Commission, as well as the Disciplinary Council. Therefore, only with the election of members from among reputable lawyers can the evaluation and determination of disciplinary liability procedures be carried out smoothly. In addition to the fact that the timely election of members of the Prosecutorial Council is necessary for stability and strengthening the rule of law, the efficiency and independence of the Prosecutorial Council represent the final benchmark in Chapter 23, so its completion also represents an important step for Montenegro on its European path," said Amra Bajrović.