President of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Ivan Brajović spoke today at the opening of the roundtable titled Transparency of financing political entities and election campaigns, organised by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, Great Britain Embassy to Montenegro and Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
Speaking of election environment in Montenegro, President Brajović stressed that all democratic societies which cherish civic and European values, including Montenegro, strive to provide its citizens with the highest level of political participation in the best possible conditions.
- Citizens are the holders of the democratic process, and they are the ones who give us the legitimacy to represent their interests in the Parliament, the President of the Parliament said.
He emphasised that the Parliament of Montenegro, wishing to improve the election environment, immediately after receiving the recommendations from the ODIHR/OSCE observation mission, started their implementation. On the other side, thinks Mr Brajović, the lack of opposition capacity for political dialogue prevented further improvement of the umbrella law - the law on the election of MPs and councillors, which requires a 2/3 majority in Parliament.
- I am not sure that all political entities have understood and accepted that responsibility in the proper manner. I believe that the citizens will give the best answer in the elections on 30 August to the seemingly paradoxical situation that those who have objections to the existing laws, do not really want to change them, President Brajović said.
The President of the Parliament of Montenegro stressed that we are going into these elections with a set of innovated laws, including the Law on financing political entities and election campaigns, which is one of the results of the Committee on Comprehensive Reform of Electoral and Other Legislation.
- Representatives of the ruling coalition, civil sector and academia in the Committee, and also in the first years of this parliamentary term - a special parliamentary working group, were working devotedly on improving the legislative solutions related to administering elections.
The novelties in this Law will contribute to the better work of political entities, as well as to the increase of transparency and professionalism of the institutions involved in the election process, among others the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and the State Audit Institution. It is our obligation to strengthen the capacities of the institutions through high quality solutions, and it is theirs to adequately apply the laws - Mr Brajović pointed out.
As the president of the party that was the first to increase the number of female candidates to 40% when proposing the list of candidates, and in some local communities even significantly above this percentage, President Brajović deemed that it was extremely important that this innovated law also contributed to respect for gender equality, because this was the first time that the budgetary funds were allocated for the work of women's organisations within the parties.
He also emphasised transparency as the key word of the electoral process, which was one of the most important guidelines during the work of the 26th Parliament. Such an approach is also recognised in the results of independent research which, in recent years, repeatedly proclaimed the Parliament of Montenegro as the most transparent parliament in the region. With regard to finances, one of the first activities after assuming the office of the president was to audit the business operations and to undertake everything that was necessary in order to regulate this segment of the Parliament's work and, by using clear procedures and control, to prevent further misuse of budgetary funds.
In his address, President Brajović pointed out the significant support of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and announced the establishment of the Parliamentary Budget Office, as a new organisational unit within the Parliamentary Institute, which will provide support to all MPs in exercising parliamentary budget control.
The round table gathered representatives of political entities in Montenegro, and in the introductory part, the speakers were President of the Council of the APC Mr Momčilo Radulović, the British Ambassador to Montenegro Ms Alison Kemp and the Director of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy Ms Ana Milutinović.
Footage - Address by the President of the Parliament “Transparency of financing of political entities and election campaigns”
