Djukanovic returned to the Assembly the amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government

The President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, returned the Law on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, which was adopted at the session on December 27, to the Assembly for re-decision, Djukanovic's cabinet announced. Đukanović's letter was delivered today to the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Danijela Djurovic.

The announcement states that "if this law is voted again at the parliamentary plenum, it would inevitably be marked as a new calculated attack on democracy, the rule of law and the system of immutable legal values of civilized societies and another political misdeed in a series of extremely dangerous legislative endeavors by the highest Montenegrin representative and legislative houses, created in an extremely complex political situation".

The cabinet announced that this law was delivered to Djukanovic on December 29.

"The next day, after learning the form and content of the Law, carefully analyzing its controversial solutions, President Djukanovic, for several reasons, based on Article 94, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of Montenegro, used the possibility established by our highest legal act - to return the Law to the Parliament of Montenegro on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government for re-decision," announced the Cabinet of Djukanovic.

In the letter delivered today to the President of the Assembly, Djukanovic, as stated in the announcement, Đukanović indicated that the promulgation of this law, its entry into force and the actions of state bodies in accordance with its letter and spirit, "could open up several important legal issues and doubts regarding the preservation of the remaining unity of the legal order, constitutionality and legality, then respecting the constitutional prohibition of the retroactive effect of laws and other regulations, and sustainable legal security in the political and legal system of the state in general".

"Furthermore, stating the reasons for returning the Law to the Assembly for re-decision, the President of Montenegro stated that it would at the same time rudely interfere with the legal space and electoral matter of a general legal act of systemic character and significance - the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament, which, as known, it cannot be amended and supplemented in the legislative procedure without the necessary support of a qualified two-thirds majority of the representatives of the Parliament of Montenegro", the announcement states.

It is added that Djukanovic,also emphasized "the potential flagrant violation of the guaranteed constitutional right to local self-government and with it the inextricably bound method of direct decision-making through freely elected representatives of local parliaments, as well as the accompanying reckless derogation of a clear constitutional norm (Article 117 paragraph 2) which without any room for different and broader interpretations, it says that the Government can dissolve the municipal assembly, i.e. dismiss the municipal president only if the municipal assembly, i.e. the municipal president, for a period of more than six months, does not exercise its powers, which is otherwise more closely regulated by the valid Local Self-Government Act ".

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