Montenegro’s parliament on Thursday (29 December) declared veteran politician Miodrag Lekić as Prime Minister-designate in a vote disputed by the president and beneath a process described by European Union officers as contravening the nation’s structure.
Lekic, 75, a profession diplomat from the time of the rule of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, stated he hoped to kind a authorities by 20 January. Parliament speaker Danijela Djurović stated Lekić received the help of 41 lawmakers within the 81-seat parliament.
Montenegro has been in political impasse for months after President Milo Djukanović had rejected Lekic as a candidate for the job of premier, citing procedural errors. In keeping with the structure, the president nominates the prime minister-designate agreed by a parliamentary majority.
In August, the parliament handed a no-confidence movement on the Cupboard of Prime Minister Dritan Abazović over signing a long-disputed deal regulating ties with the highly effective Serbian Orthodox Church, the second no-confidence vote in authorities this yr.
The parliament’s majority made up of a heterogeneous coalition of pro-European and pro-Serb events had proposed Lekić as a PM candidate to Djukanović however with out signatures of deputies so he rejected it.
Then the MPs handed a regulation permitting the parliament to appoint the PM-designate in case the president fails to take action, which requires adjustments to the structure.
Nonetheless, the constitutional court docket has not been practical since September as a result of the parliament couldn’t agree on the appointment of a brand new decide after one among them retired.
The Venice Fee, the Council of Europe’s advisory physique within the discipline of constitutional regulation, has stated the regulation curbing the presidential powers contravened the structure and needed to be amended.
Djukanović, Montenegro’s long-time president, stated that Lekic’s nomination was anti-constitutional however that he was open to a political dialogue with the parliamentary majority.
Politics in Montenegro, a NATO member and a candidate to affix the European Union, has lengthy been marked by a rift between those that determine as Montenegrins and those that see themselves as Serbs and oppose Montenegro’s independence from a former state union with neighbouring and far bigger Serbia.
