(Podgorica, 9 August 2011) – It is a reality that in spite of the accusations for organized crime and corruption leveled against him, as well as the fact that the Special State Prosecutor’s Office initiated a pretrial investigation against him on the grounds of these allegations, the ruling coalition in Bar has no problems supporting the renewal of Žarko Pavičević‘s mandate as Bar’s mayor. This fact alone speaks to the ‘democratic’ orientation of the coalition governing Bar. Bar’s parliament has scheduled an extraordinary session for tomorrow with one agenda item listed – the election of Bar’s mayor.
The stance of the ruling coalition’s councilors in Bar’s parliament shouldn’t be surprising however. After all it is their votes that paved the way for all of Pavičević’s suspicious deals and those of his associates. It would truly be odd if the DPS-SDP coalition in Bar suddenly stopped such a mutually beneficial ‘friendship.’
The vice-president of Bar’s SDP-branch, Zdravko Gvozdenović, recently confirmed the nature of this ‘friendship’ when he declared that: “Pavičević deserves our full support because of his attitude towards the SDP and its program.” It would be more interesting to hear what the gentlemen in the SDP think of Pavičević’s attitude towards the public interest, the municipal budget, his relationship with ‘strategic investors’ and agreements that were concluded with such figures. The municipal branch of the SDP has yet to comment on the numerous accusations leveled against Pavičević by MANS, clearly prioritizing Pavičević’s relationship to their own party.
The SDP’s stance is also not a surprise for MANS, even if we take into consideration that the party withdrew its support for Podgorica’s mayor Miomir Mugoša (in an attempt to project the image of a principled political actor). It is worth noting that MANS initiated legal proceedings against both Mugoša and Pavičević for their abuse of power. However, either the local interests of the SDP in Bar are different than those in Podgorica or their commitment to the rule of law was short-lived.
In the best practice of Western democracies – whose example the leaders of the DPS and SDP claim to be emulating on a daily basis – it is unimaginable that a candidate of a given party would be considered for reelection if there was even the smallest suspicion that they were corrupt. The example of Pavičević illustrates how far Montenegro still has to go before adopting such basic democratic principles.
At the same time as tomorrow’s Bar city council session, which is meant to reelect Pavičević, he will also find himself under the scrutiny of the Special State Prosecutor – located in the building adjacent to municipal parliament – for having done considerable damage to Bar’s public coffers. We believe that it will be hard for the SDP to explain how they are able to vote for a candidate who is simultaneously the subject of an investigation by the Special State Prosecutor for Organized Crime and Corruption.
On the other hand, MANS will definitely continue its own investigation into the Pavičević affair by furnishing prosecutors with any additional evidence that we collect relevant to this case. We hope that Pavičević will eventually be made to answer for his actions, regardless of whether or not he is the mayor of Bar. Similarly, we want to believe that Pavičević’s ‘political life’ has been extended by the DPS so that they can eventually place another one of their mayor’s behind bars. Of course, this all depends on the attitude of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office. Given the breadth of the evidence that MANS has already submitted to Special State Prosecutor Đurđina Ivanović we hope that we won’t have to wait long for a ruling.
