MANS will today sent a petition to all board members of the Economy, Finance and Budget of the Parliament of Montenegro requesting an emergency session of that body which will be devoted to the possible misuses of state resources in the area of air traffic for the purposes of the upcoming election campaign, actually the free bringing of the Montenegrin voters in Montenegro to vote for the party in power in the upcoming local elections.
MANS in the past few days from dozens of people received numerous complaints that the activists of the ruling party invite our citizens living abroad, offering them a free return ticket to Montenegro, in order to vote for this party in the upcoming local elections scheduled for May 25th, 2014. This phenomenon reported to us citizens who live in Montenegro, whose relatives from abroad pointed on calls by activists in power and offer for free transportation, and also many people from the diaspora who were personally contacted.
According to the, two types of free “packages” were offered. For students and those who have more free time abroad was offered arrival to Montenegro five days before the elections and stay until Sunday or Monday night after the elections, as they could spend a whole week with their families and friends in our country. For those with less free time was offered arrival on Friday night or Saturday, right before the elections, and return on Sunday or Monday after elections are over.
Having in mind all the above, and the fact that to the majority of people who contacted us have been told that they will be transported for free with national airline company Montenegro Airlines, MANS requested from the Board to carry out control hearing of Daliborka Pejovic, President of the Board of Montenegro Airlines, and to urgently request from the Airports of Montenegro, the Agency for Civil Aviation and Flight Control to provide information about all flights that are planned and/or arrived a week before and two days after the elections, including regular and charter flight of air carriers.
We also suggested to the Board to determine if the number of flights t Montenegro increased due to the upcoming local elections, especially through the national airline and who pays for these flights, ie. are the flights financed from the budget and therefore there was misuse of public funds, or the flights have been financed in some other way and who pays for that. As well, we recommended to the Board to adopt the relevant opinions and conclusions, and to prevent all possible illegal actions, and illegal use of public money of all citizens for the purpose of the party in power in the upcoming local elections, and to enable us to participate at the meeting to discuss our allegations in order to present them relevant information that we have collected.
We invite the Board to urgently, latest in the next two days hold a meeting on this topic, to collect relevant information from government bodies, to hear the President of the Board of Montenegro Airlines and to make adequate conclusions, so illegal practices could be prevented on time, before the elections, if they exist.
Vuk Maras
Director of Monitoring Program
