The President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, says that his proposal for shortening the mandate of the Parliament of Montenegro and the decision not to accept the candidacy of Miodrag Lekic for the prime minister-designate is in accordance with the Constitution.
“My decision not to accept Mr. Lekic’s incomplete candidacy is absolutely in the letter and spirit of the Constitution. Now the Parliament is responsible because the Constitution has foreseen that I can either propose a prime minister-designate or suggest that the Parliament shorten its mandate, after which I would call elections”, President Djukanovic says.
So, it is clear, now the Parliament is on the move.
He has also pointed out that he proposed that the session be held on 30 September.
“Today, we have a seriously devastated system in Montenegro – public finances, economy, rule of law… This is not in the interest of any party or citizen of Montenegro. We must achieve responsible governance in the country. Since we have a delegitimized government, it is now clear to everyone what we have to do – get a legitimate government”, he points out.
Development goals, he says, are achievable based on the use of our resources.
“We just need a responsible government. We can lose two more years, but we will need more time to get out of the quagmire we have been led into by irresponsible state management”, he believes.
Answering the question whether the absence of the Constitutional Court is an obstacle to holding elections, President Djukanovic says that those two things are not mutually exclusive.
“As we know, when the electoral process is underway, the last option for those who feel that their electoral rights have been violated is the Constitutional Court. That is why everyone would feel much more comfortable if we had a Constitutional Court. Why we don’t have it – you should ask those who did everything to prevent us from having a functional Constitutional Court and brought us dysfunctional state institutions. I think that those who act in the interests of some other countries did and continue to do that”, says Djukanovic.
Should we, he adds, now agree to what is clearly their intention – that due to the absence of a certain institution we cannot organize elections in order to confirm their thesis that Montenegro should not exist, I hope we agree on this – no.
