MANS today again called all political parties, especially Social Democratic Party (SDP), to give their full contribution in building citizens’ confidence in the electoral process. Having in mind enormous number of irregularities registered during last elections, the formation of authority with key players of such electoral practice will carry with itself a huge debt, especially will send to the citizens of Podgorica clear message what kind of the Government they can expect in the next four years.
Special responsibility for building confidence in the electoral process carries SDP as a party which only negotiate with the ruling DPS about the formation of authority in Podgorica and few others municipalities in Montenegro, but primarily due to the fact that we heard from the highest officials of that party that it is exactly the DPS key holder of electoral manipulations.
Less than a month ago the president of the Political Council of the SDP Jusuf Kalamperovic openly spoke that the power is abused in order to get a better election result, and presented that in that way is get 5 to 10 percent more support in the elections. “Simplified: they steal, bribe, and so on. And that happens. And I do not claim that does not happen. It happens in a significant number”, said Kalamperovic.
MANS, with help of its observers, during last elections in Podgorica registered a huge number of irregularities that were ignored by all institutions responsible for their processing. As it is known, the Election Commission of the Capital city Podgorica, the State Election Commission, and the Constitutional Court “in packages” rejected official complaints about irregularities of the local elections in Podgorica, and none of mentioned institutions did not make the slightest effort to determine the facts.
However, beside the fact that the state institutions succumbed to an apparent influence of party directives, doubts about irregularities in Podgorica are still an open issue, not only in Montenegro, but also on the addresses which monitor whether Montenegro really apply European standards or they just serve it for daily political statements.
There is no doubt that the affair “Snapshot”, as well as over 800 specific cases of electoral irregularities that MANS registered, for the official Brussels are not closed issues, evidenced by last statements of senior European officials about how important it is to eliminate doubts about the regularity of the elections in Montenegro.
Because of that we believe that is essential that all parts of Montenegro society are strongly involved in the healing process of the electoral process in Montenegro in order for the scenario, that we had a chance to see on May 25th in Podgorica, to stay in the past forever. Therefore, MANS recently invited all political parties that seek power in Podgorica to publicly pledge to make every effort to shift current way of managing the Capital city, and to make that institution transparent so there is no suspicion again that the authority is abused for electoral purposes.
Finally, the formation of the Government in Podgorica will be a test of principle and sincerity all of those who at least a little bit advocate for Montenegro to finally becomes legally regulated state, where the authority power is reached through fair and free elections. We believe that is the minimum that each political party should assume before any party and political interest.
MANS
