Ahead of Sunday’s election, the Democratic Party of Socialists continued to shamelessly abuse state funds for personal promotion and the promotion of their political candidate. We have witnessed that in the past days finished a few infrastructure objects whose finalization is “timed” to match with the final of the election campaign, so that the ceremonies of putting into operation of roads and intersections converted into political promotion of the DPS with a tendency to remain the same until the elections.
Opening of the bypass road in Golubovci where party officials and activists even wore characteristics of the DPS’s political campaign, the opening of the roundabout at the Old Airport, and opening of water supply system and rural roads, is carried out by the deafening political propaganda of the party, that a candidate for mayor of Podgorica displays around as an attraction.
Although the budget of the Capital City meant for infrastructure is filled with money of all citizens of Podgorica, and even those who do not support politics of the DPS, that party is not afraid that every new project represent, not as a normal thing in the development of the city, but only and exclusively as a gift of the DPS to its current and potential voters, which is blatant abuse of public funds.
In addition to the Capital city and the outgoing mayor, Miomir Mugosa, in political campaign are involved and Investment Development Fund (IDF), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which promotions of their projects and public appearances as usual “paint”by colors of the DPS. Huge amounts of money from these two institutions are set aside just in the pre-election period, and their leaders are on the filed most of the time and publicly declare that the Law on financing political parties do not interest them and they will not comply with it.
On the head of the IDF is Zoran Vukcevic, one of the acters of the scandal “Snapshot” who together with party colleagues, in the DPS’s closed session, planned misuse of the state money for political purpose. Instaed that such a “core” is politically and criminallt sanctioned, the parent party gave him a new position where he maganes tens of millions of our money.
When it comes to the Ministry of Agriculture and famous MIDAS program, run by Petar Ivanovic and Blagota Radulovic, individuals for whom there are evidence that connect them with drug lord Darko Saric, while Radulovic is still head of the private company whuch was owned bt Saric family.
We believe that it is a personal choice of the DPS that political campaign for that party in Podgorica run abuser Mugosa, loyal Ivanovic, and associate of drug cartel Ivanovic, but we stronly condemn the abuse of public funds for political purpose and obvious monopolization of all available resources by the DPS, which is indisputably violation of the equality of all participants in the electoral process.
Dejan Milovac
Director of the Research Center of MANS
