Long-time political and NGO activist and former member of parliament Muhamet Nika, he directed the head of state Jakov Milatović urgency to the petition submitted on September 21, in which he claims that last year's local elections in Ulcinj were irregular. He demands an answer from Milatović, in order to inform the EU Delegation in Podgorica and the OSCE about his claims regarding the Ulcinj elections.
Nika previously announced that, according to the law, in the local elections held on March 27, 2022, 34 and not 33 councilors should have been elected for the Ulcinj parliament.
"A petition was submitted to the President of Montenegro regarding the violation of the electoral rights of citizens of the municipality of Ulcinj during the past local elections. As an individual, but also as activists of the non-governmental sector, I care that elections as a constitutional category are held legally and regularly, which is why I launched this initiative towards the highest institution. As I have not received any response, as a citizen I urge the office (of the president) to respond to the initiative in the form of a petition, because as an activist of the NGO sector, I intend to introduce the case to the EU Delegation, which monitors the regularity of the elections, as well as the OSCE," he wrote to Nika in emergency addressed to Milatović's cabinet.
In a petition submitted to the cabinet on September 21, he assessed that last year's elections in Ulcinj were irregular in terms of the number of elected councilors. He claims that the local parliament in the southernmost municipality, bearing in mind that more than 20 voters turned out for the March elections, would have to have 34 councilors - one more than the current convocation.
In the letter, 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 when the Municipal Assembly (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.
He claims that the Official Gazette (number 4/98) 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 (of the Law on Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament) stipulates that citizens in municipalities elect 30 councilors and one more for every five thousand voters. The number of councilors is determined by the SO in a special decision no later than on the day of announcing the election, after notification of the number of voters. But, on the critical day of voting, SO Ulcinj, simulating the lack of a quorum, did not make a new decision to increase the number of councilors", stressed Nika.
He reminded that in the final report of SO Ulcinj (from April 9, 2022) on the March elections, it is stated that there were 20.393 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 is denied by not making a new decision on the number of councilors", the letter says.
Nika added that the right to vote is protected by election commissions, as well as by the Constitutional Court 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.
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 authority, would cancel the local elections in Ulcinj and call for new ones," said Nika.
He assessed that by not making a decision, the local administration "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 so now, because of the 'sicarians'." But, that 'Sicarian' doesn't give them some municipalities in the north where, because of 20 or 10 votes of new voters, the end of the elections is not in sight", commented Nika, alluding to the elections in Šavnik, which have not been completed even after a year.
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