URA Civic Movement’s leader Dritan Abazovic said that the opposition should have a common candidate at the presidential elections. However, Abazovic said, if there was no agreement among opposition parties on who the candidate should be, URA would propose its own candidate, Pobjeda newspaper reports.
“The best option would be if the opposition had a common candidate that would acceptable to all opposition entities. The candidate would have to be a person with democratic capacity, a clear civic profile and with a doubtlessly opposition orientation. Such a candidate would surely beat DPS’s,” Abazovic said.
He said he still hadn’t considered running for president himself.
“We’ll see. It is still early for such a decision. I say again, it would be best to have a common opposition candidate, but if this is not the case then URA will have its own candidate. There are a lot of members in our organisation who could be serious contenders for the presidency,” said Abazovic.
Asked about possible returning to Parliament, Abazovic said that if a date for new elections was set, the opposition would end the boycott.
“Without that, there is no chance to return and there is no discussion about that. Illegitimate government shall ensure unblocking the political system, and the solution is fairly simple – agreement on the election date. There is no compromise with the Constitution and laws. This government is not the product of free will of the people and therefore we must go to the polls again. When we set the date, then we can negotiate the conditions. But without that, there the boycott of the national parliament will not be ended,” Abazovic was clear.
He also commented on Russia’s behaviour towards Montenegro and its officials.
“We have entered a sad and harmful episode of development of relations with Russia. Simply, the fraudulent policy of our current government has to be paid. It has been caught between two stools and now we are suffering the consequences as citizens and as a nation. DPS leadership has made deals with Russians for years, taking their money and representing them as strategic partners. Therefore, their behaviour now seems inappropriate. It is a result of failed expectations. If we had led an honest and responsible pro-Western policy from the beginning, this would never have happened,” Abazovic said.
Commenting on Russia’s treatment towards Montenegrin officials, Abazovic said he did not know who the blacklisted people were.
“If there was a true rule of law in Montenegro, the state authorities would confiscate passports of many of them, at least until the end of the initiated investigations into the corruption and organised crime against them. This does not apply to Mr Vukovic and I am sorry if any citizen of Montenegro was under unpleasant treatment anywhere in the world due to DPS’s wrong policy,” said Abazovic.
He pointed out that part of the opposition, which conditions the election of the president of the Municipality of Herceg Novi by adoption of a declaration on abolishing sanctions against Russia, should propose “another form”.
“Conditioning is unnecessary and also has nothing to do with the jurisdiction of the local administration. The government in Herceg Novi should be formed as soon as possible. That means that any particulate requirements are harmful and hamper achieving the ultimate goal,” said Abazovic.
