The parties of Aleksa Bečić and Dritan Abazovic said yesterday that the proposal of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) is falsified according to which an ad hoc working group would be set up for further expansion and modification of the electoral and other legislation, stating that it is a case of "maliciously overlapping the Plans of Comprehensive Election and Other reforms provided by these two parties".
"DPS has roughly forged our plan with diluting, disenfranchising or total distortion of key items trying to get support from the comprehensive election and other reforms for the cosmetic upgrade and the superficial optimization of the election and other legislation. They have resorted to a precautionary approach to conceal the intention of escaping comprehensive reform, and by simulating democracy, call on all political entities to work with them with the optimization and superficial expansion of electoral legislation. We urge them to accept the Plan of Comprehensive Electoral and Other Reforms, otherwise, the Democrats and the URA will not participate in the work of that working group," said the parties.
The Collegium of the President of the Assembly submitted a draft of DPS to the parliamentary parties, according to which a working group would be set up for further expansion and modification of the electoral and other legislation, which would consist of seven representatives of the government and the opposition, whose head would be the DPS representative. The decisions in that working group, as stated, would have to be made by consensus without any separate opinions. Sessions could be attended by representatives of state authorities, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, universities, as well as experts and consultants from certain areas. Formation of the working group was sought by Democratic Montenegro and URA, boycotting the parliament's work.
In the Democrats and the URA movement, they warn that the DPS proposal does not envisage discussing the implementation of all OEBS / ODIHR recommendations and that they do not want changes to the State Election Commission (DIK) and the Anti-Corruption Agency (ASK). They also argue that in the DPS, they are not prepared to form a Monitoring Committee on the consistent application of adopted laws and bylaws but to define a mandate for an already formed group.
"The original DPS document takes over the phrase "amendments to the Media Law with the aim of aligning the legal framework with EU and international standards" and modifying it into "consideration of the Draft Law on Media, with an analysis of a set of media laws with possible amendments." This modification of the DPS clearly states that the Working Group does not need to set a proposal for a set of media laws, but to only consider draft laws to be prepared by the Government, "as stated by the Democrats and URA. The ruling party, as alleged, shows the readiness for expansion rather than comprehensive reform of electoral legislation. The proposal foresees that NGOs are not involved in the work of the Working Group, but are invited if necessary if all the members of the Working Group agree.
Stanic: Proposal agreed by DPS and Democrats
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) considers the dialogue between the opposition and the authorities to build a democratic electoral environment as extremely necessary, said spokesman of that party, Mirko Stanić. He believes that the dialogue between the opposition and the authorities is essential to building a democratic electoral environment.
"The proposals that were essentially agreed upon by the DPS and the Democrats are acceptable ways to get out of the deadlock and the starting point for commencing a dialogue," Stanić said.
According to him, it is especially important that the principle of the same number of opposition and government representatives and consensus in decision making is ensured.
"The achieved participation of the non-governmental sector from the previous dialogues between the authorities and the opposition must be preserved in this process," Stanić said.
As he said, SDP will affirm the culture of agreement and the European consensus principle and in a new attempt to provide citizens with the best conditions for expressing free will.
Text by Samir Kajosevic, on September 19th, 2018, read more at Vijesti
