Election of New Member of the RTV Podgorica Council Blocked Again by PES and Coalition Partners

07/07/2026

Non-governmental organisations point out that the Committee on Elections and Appointments of the Assembly of the Capital City of Podgorica yesterday, for the second time, contrary to the Decision on the Establishment of the Limited Liability Company Local Public Broadcaster “Radio Television Podgorica”, halted the procedure for appointing a new member of the RTV Podgorica Council, Nataša Nelević, the nominee of human rights NGOs.

Responsibility for such conduct lies with the Committee Chair, Anđela Mićović of the Europe Now Movement (PES), councillor of the Movement for Podgorica (PzPG) Miloš Krstović, councillor of the Democratic People’s Party (DNP) Vladimir Bulatović, and councillor of Democratic Montenegro Jovana Mijović, who did not support the determination of the list of candidates, thereby violating the provisions of the Decision on the Establishment of RTV Podgorica. According to media reports, the only councillor who attended the session and voted in favour of the determination of the list was Mitar Šušić, councillor of New Serb Democracy (NSD).

The fact that the majority in the Committee, led by PES and its partners, acted contrary to the regulations is further confirmed by the fact that the same Committee had already, on 16 April this year, determined the list of timely and complete candidacies, on which Nataša Nelević was ranked first, with the support of 12 human rights NGOs.

“The working body of the Assembly of the Capital City responsible for elections and appointments shall, within 15 days from the expiry of the deadline for submitting proposals, publish the list of timely and complete proposals of candidates for Council members, in the same manner in which the public call was published. The working body of the Assembly of the Capital City responsible for elections and appointments shall, within 40 days from the expiry of the deadline for submitting proposals, determine the proposed list for the appointment of the Council by authorised nominators,” clearly stipulates Article 34 of the Decision on the Establishment of RTV Podgorica. This is a mandatory provision that leaves councillors no discretionary right to refuse or block the determination of the list once they have already determined which candidates meet the prescribed requirements, as was the case here.

In addition, Article 35 of the same Decision stipulates that, if there is more than one candidate from the same category of authorised nominators, the Committee must include in the proposed list the candidate who has the support of the largest number of authorised nominators that meet the legal requirements. This means that the Committee was obliged to establish that Nataša Nelević, who was supported by 12 NGOs, had greater support from qualified NGOs than the other candidate, Stojan Sjekloća, who was supported by three NGOs, and to include her in the proposed list for the appointment of the RTV Podgorica Council.

We recall that the RTV Podgorica Council currently has only two out of a total of five members and is therefore unable to make decisions. The conduct of the majority represents a continuation of the obstruction of the process of appointing Council members, which has been ongoing since January this year, with the sole aim of ensuring that a representative of the non-governmental sector who is politically acceptable to the ruling parties is elected to the RTV Podgorica Council.

All declarative commitment to European integration and the rule of law collapses in the face of examples such as this. The authorities in the Capital City are showing that an independent and professional local public broadcaster, free from party influence, is not their priority, reflecting the same undemocratic pattern we are also witnessing at the state level in the process of electing members of the RTCG Council.

We call on the President of the Assembly of the Capital City, Srđan Perić, as well as representatives of other political entities participating in the work of the Assembly of the Capital City, to urgently engage with this issue and help unblock the RTV Podgorica Council.

The NGOs that supported Nataša Nelević’s candidacy will not give up their support for her as a genuine representative of human rights NGOs, and will also inform the EU Delegation to Montenegro, as well as other interested international organisations, about this case. No repetition of the procedure will change the fact that the regulations clearly prescribe who should be proposed for this position. Nor will it change our position that the governing body of a public broadcaster must be composed of independent representatives of civil society, rather than politically acceptable candidates.