Muhamet Nika, a long-time political activist and former member of the Parliament of Montenegro, assessed that last year's local elections in Ulcinj were irregular in terms of the number of elected councilors in the local parliament. He claims that the local parliament in the southernmost municipality, bearing in mind that more than 20 voters turned out for the March elections, should have 34 instead of 33 councilors, as many as there are in the current convocation.
In a letter to the president of the state, Jakov Milatović, he stated that the right to vote as a constitutional category was denied in Ulcinj by electoral engineering.
"I claim that the legitimacy of the past local elections was threatened from the moment the SO refused to vote on the decision to increase the number of councilors in accordance with the number of voters," he wrote to Nika Milatović.
The Official Gazette of the Republic of Montenegro No. 4/98, he added, was changed 17 times, "probably due to the consent of parties that had an interest in individuals and political leaders and not in open lists."
"Article 3 stipulates that citizens in the municipalities elect 30 councilors and one more for every five thousand voters. The number of councilors is determined by a special decision of the SO on the day of announcing the election at the latest after notification of the number of voters. But the SO of Ulcinj, on the critical day of voting, simulating the lack of of the quorum, did not make a new decision on increasing the number of councilors", emphasized Nika.
He reminded that in the final report of SO Ulcinj from April 09.04.2022, 27.03.2022, for the elections held on March 20.393, XNUMX, it was stated that there were XNUMX voters.
"This means that for the elections in the municipality of Ulcinj, 34 and not 33 councilors should be elected as before, so the will of the voters has been denied by not passing a new decision on the number of councilors", the letter says.
Nika stated that the right to vote is protected by the Election Commission and the Constitutional and other competent courts.
In an earlier letter to the president of the local parliament, Ardijan Mavrić, on the same topic, Nika reminded him that the relevant ministry once pointed out the fact that the municipality of Ulcinj, by increasing the number of voters from 15.000 to more than 20, was obliged to make a new decision on the election of 34 councilors. compared to the previous 33.
He proposed to Mavrić that the SO elect another councilor in order to restore the legitimacy of the Assembly.
"If you are not able to do that, inform the president of the state about everything, who, according to his powers, would cancel the local elections in Ulcinj and call new ones," Nika concluded.
He estimated that the local administration, by not making a decision, hybridly threw out five thousand voters who could change the distribution of forces in the local parliament.
"As the competent ministry turned a blind eye then, it is doing the same now, because of the "šićar". But that "šićar" is not given to them by some municipalities in the north where, due to 20 or 10 votes of new voters, the elections are not in sight," said Nika.
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