“Montenegro has come a long way as a country in 17 years, and the large number of political parties that ran for the upcoming early parliamentary elections represent a great progress in the development of democracy”, says Great Britain’s ambassador to Montenegro, Karen Maddocks, in the Focus show on TVCG.
“My current view of the election is that Montenegro has become a beautiful democracy. It went from a situation where you didn’t have so many parties to a multi-political scene, and that’s a big progress in the development of democracy. Now citizens have more options when voting, but parties must be clear in their manifestos about their priorities, so that citizens can best choose what they need. My message would be to clearly show what each political party stands for, so that citizens would know what they will vote for,” Maddocks says.
She has referred to the inauguration and assumption of office of the new president of the state, Jakov Milatovic, stressing that we witnessed a peaceful transition of power.
“I was present at the inauguration, which was a dignified and inclusive ceremony. I think that this is a sign that Montenegro has matured as a democracy, and for that we have the merits of both the former and the new head of state. Montenegro has come a long way as a country in 17 years,” Maddocks has said.
The presence of so many leaders from the region, as well as international partners, sent, as she says, a message that Montenegro has important partnerships and alliances.
“We support the Government to strengthen institutions. We supported the process of monitoring regularity during the presidential election, and we also supported CeMI in monitoring and counting votes, implementing their results, and we will implement the same in June”, Maddocks says, adding that they do everything in their power to reduce the risk of interference in elections.
She has noted that the OSCE mission and other embassies have the same goal.
Referring to possible support for political parties, Maddocks claims that the British Embassy will cooperate with any government elected by the citizens, but that the extent of cooperation depends on the extent to which they share common values.
She points out that she is pleased with the statement of the newly elected president, Jakov Milatovic, who supports Montenegro’s membership in NATO.
She adds that she does not have clearly expressed views on the Open Balkans, and that the Government and the citizens must decide on this issue.
“The upcoming elections are an excellent opportunity for the Government to support the Open Balkans, or not. You can directly ask the people, and let them decide on it”, says Maddocks, noting that Montenegro is already part of the Berlin Process.
“I think that with any other initiative, the Open Balkans or similar, we would have to be careful not to jeopardize the Berlin Process,” Maddocks has stated.
