Today, MANS submitted initiatives to the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) to initiate proceedings due to the suspicion that the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, had violated the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns. A special initiative was also filed against the candidate for the Mayor of Podgorica, current Deputy Mayor, Luka Rakčević.
Yesterday, electoral list “For a better Podgorica – Jakov Milatović” published a promotional video that was recorded in the office of the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović. After the video was broadcast on the YouTube platform, it was additionally promoted as political marketing on one daily newspaper’s online portal, which was also paid for by the electoral list “For a better Podgorica – Jakov Milatović”.
Article 36 of the Law on Financing Political Entities and Election Campaigns explicitly prohibits “the use of the premises of state bodies, state administration bodies, local self-government bodies… unless the same conditions are provided for all participants in the election process.”
As other participants in the upcoming local elections in Podgorica have not had the opportunity to record their promotional videos in the president’s office, there is a well-founded suspicion that the President Milatović violated the law and provided his electoral list with exclusive access to the premises of the presidency.
According to the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, using the premises of state authorities in a way that violates the equality of all participants in the election process is punishable by a fine in an amount ranging from 5,000 to 20,000 euros.
In addition, the initiative refers to the fact that the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, was engaged in the promotion of his electoral list i.e. he actively participated in the pre-election campaign during his working hours.
In the morning hours on September 24, the President Milatović took an active part at the press conference organized by the electoral list “For a better Podgorica – Jakov Milatović”, thus violating Article 44, paragraph 4 of the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, which expressly prohibits such behaviour by public officials.
On the same grounds, MANS filed an initiative against the deputy mayor and a candidate for the new mayor of Podgorica, Luka Rakčević, who was also present and took an active part in the mentioned press conference.
What is discouraging is the inability of President Milatović, as the holder of one of the highest positions in the state, to realize that by violating the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, he is not contributing to the restoration of citizens’ trust in the electoral process, instead, he is promoting himself contrary to everything that his position is supposed to represent.
We do not recognize this as a decisive step towards the democratization of Montenegro, which is continuously being slowed down by precisely such practices.
At the same time, MANS calls on APC to process the initiatives submitted today without delay, and thus to contribute to the establishment of the rule of law in this area.
Dejan Milovac
MANS
