Popović: The MUP will check whether Spajić has Serbian citizenship, there is a high probability that he does

Radovan Popović, Director General of the Directorate for Citizenship and Foreigners in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Montenegro said that the first steps of the MUP in the coming period are to check whether the leader of the Europe Now Movement (PES) Milojko Spajić has Serbian citizenship.

In the reply of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia to the Republic Election Commission (REC) of that country, which was submitted to the State Election Commission (SEC) in Montenegro, it is stated that Spajić resides in Belgrade, while one of the leaders of the Democratic Front (DF), Andrija Mandić, does not reside in Serbia.

Mandić is officially a candidate for the president of Montenegro, while Spajić's candidacy has been announced.

"The first steps of the MUP in the coming period are to check whether this person has the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia. Therefore, it is highly likely that as soon as he has a residence, he also has the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia. Article 24 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship clearly states that when such circumstances arise, the authority is obliged to determine whether that person has the citizenship of another country," said Popović in the show Reflektor on TV Vijesti.

He added that the MUP will initiate administrative proceedings.

"In any case, we will contact the competent authorities of Serbia in order to collect the facts and evidence that are necessary for conducting administrative proceedings. Our law does not allow for the possibility of dual residence. Our law on the register of residence and residence states that deregistration of residence is not mandatory, but is given only as a possibility. This means that according to our law he (Spajić) was not obliged to deregister his residence from Montenegro. We will issue a document in accordance with the records we keep. This does not prevent us from initiating another procedure. Here we are specifically talking about procedure of revocation of Montenegrin citizenship," said Popović.

He said that it very often happens that a party in the proceedings who previously had the citizenship of another country renounces the citizenship of that country.

"Also, if it is determined that the party acquired the citizenship of another country before June 3.6.2006, XNUMX, it can retain the citizenship of another country. If a person has the citizenship of another country and in the meantime submits a reason to renounce the citizenship of that country, we have no reason to revoke the citizenship When it comes to residence, he can deregister his residence in another country and only have his residence in Montenegro," said Popović.