The Government of Montenegro agreed yesterday not to introduce forced administration in Šavnik, but to initiate a parliamentary dialogue on how to end the elections in that municipality, which have been ongoing since October 2022.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the move was withdrawn after consultation with the Prime Minister's office Milojko Spajić (Movement Europe Now) and the Ministry of Public Administration (MJU), on whose proposal the executive power voted at the end of March to send a board of commissioners to Šavnik.
State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice Dragisa Janjušević, said last night in the program "Reflektor" on TV "Vijesti" that the commissioners can go to Šavnik "as soon as tomorrow", but that it was decided not to go yet because of the announcement of the parliamentary dialogue, to which the parties should be invited by the prime minister Milojko Spajic.
"I think that the dialogue will start in the coming days. That is why we do not open the story with the board of trustees and give a chance to dialogue", he said.
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The government made the decision a few days after the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) threatened to withdraw from the Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reform if commissioners were sent to the Durmitor municipality. The same possibility was hinted at by the Social Democrats (SD), who rule together with the DPS in Šavnik.
The executive power's move was preceded by a meeting of Spajić with diplomats from the EU Delegation and the embassies of the Quinte states (USA, France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy), which last week called for the end of the elections in Savnik.
One source of "Vijesti" from that meeting, which was held on Monday, claims that the representatives of the West had no suggestions other than the one to end the elections in Šavnica, stating that anything else would represent interference in the internal affairs of Montenegro. Another interlocutor said that there was "nothing special" at the meeting, and that the key lies in the dialogue in the parliament, that is, in the Committee for Electoral Reform.
After a new attempt by the Municipal Election Commission (MEC) of Šavnik to make a decision on repeating the elections at two polling stations where voting had not been completed for almost a year and a half failed yesterday, it was once again confirmed that the solution to the Šavnik electoral tangle can only be - political. However, it is currently unclear what could be the compromise measure agreed to by the DPS and the former Democratic Front (DF) parties, which are not allowing the end of the voting because of "election tourists" who they claim are DPS.
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The DPS unofficially told "Vijesti" that they insist that the government not introduce forced administration and that the elections be ended, but they did not want to answer what a possible political agreement should entail and whether it would be acceptable for them to be part of it. to go to the polls without "election tourists".
On the other hand, from the DF, that is, the coalition "For the Future of Šavnik", they say that in the current circumstances, only the organization of new elections is acceptable to them.
In the Assembly at the beginning of April, at the session of the Electoral Reform Committee, Šavnik was discussed, but it is questionable whether that body and the legislative chamber can come up with any solution that can help solve the problems in the Durmitor municipality. Even if, as suggested by some members of the Committee, the SEC was given the competences of the MEC and a repeat of the elections was scheduled, this does not mean that they would be over, bearing in mind the incidents that have happened so far in two Šavnica polling stations.
In addition, it would be questionable whether such or a similar solution could be adopted, considering that the practice is that electoral laws are not changed during the duration of the electoral process.
On March 28, the government dissolved the SO Šavnik, but on the evening of the same day, the councilors of the ruling coalition of DPS and SD voted to shorten the mandate in an electronic session, in order to avoid forced administration. However, the executive authority unexpectedly withdrew its decision "from the procedure of publication in the Official Gazette". The reason, as unofficially explained to "Vijesti" at the time, is that the decision of SO Šavnik to shorten the mandate came into force on the day it was adopted, while the Government's decision was supposed to come into force on the day it was published in the Official Gazette.
After the Government's move, the option of introducing forced administration was out of the question, and the decision of the DPS and SD councilors, which could lead to the calling of elections, remained valid. Then the President of Montenegro spoke Jakov Milatovic and refused to call elections, so that the Official Gazette would then publish the Government's decision on forced administration. However, the president did not call for elections even after that. He claims that the decisions of the Šavnik Municipal Council and the Government do not provide a legally valid basis for calling elections.
The elections in Šavnik began on October 23, 2022, when they were held in 13 other municipalities, but they were not completed because the members of the election committees from the opposition coalition For the Future of Šavnik did not allow part of the newly registered voters to vote because, they claim, they were re-registered to support the DPS.
At two polling stations, in the Municipality building and in the village of Kruševica, where 541 voters have the right to vote, voting was held on nine occasions, the last time on December 18, 2022, when the elections were interrupted again, after which the MEC there could not agree on repeat.
So far, dozens of people have been prosecuted before the judicial authorities because of the events related to the elections in Šavnik, which included numerous incidents, including physical conflicts.
Suljević: DPS is doing the same as the current government used to do
Member of the SEC and program associate at the Center for Civic Education (CGO), Damir Suljević, told "Vijesti" that the possible departure of a part of the opposition from the Committee for Electoral Reform would have significant and far-reaching consequences, as was the case in previous parliamentary elections. convocations, when the then opposition parties (the current ruling ones) left those committees due to various issues that were important to them.
"The only thing that has changed now is that the DPS, as part of the mechanism for solving the Šavnik issue, is doing the same from the position of the opposition, and the outcome will be determined by the essential government, as was the case before."
Suljević assesses that there are numerous legal possibilities that the Board can address, and that everything depends on how deep the amendments to the electoral legislation will go and how quickly they try to reach a solution.
"For example, the results of the Committee's work may lead to a change in the electoral system at the local level, which was recently mentioned as a possibility by the Ministry of Justice, or to a decision on holding all local elections on one day, and about which there is already, at least on a declarative level, general political consensus. Regardless of what the new solutions would be and how they would be set in relation to the specific situation, there remains the possibility that in the transitional and final provisions a whole set of solutions for those issues that are still open, which are certainly the elections in Šavnik, remains. ".
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