Human Rights Action (HRA) has submitted an Initiative to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro to review the constitutionality of the provision of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro, which prescribes a third round of voting for the election of the Supreme State Prosecutor (SSP) of Montenegro, contrary to the Constitution that prescribes two rounds.

Since candidate Branko Vučković did not get the support of two-thirds of MPs in the first round, and since none of the four candidates (Vučković, Jovićević, Radović, Rodić) got the required three-fifths support in the second round, the procedure for the election of the SSP should end and commence from the start, by announcing a new tender.

HRA has requested the Constitutional Court to order the Parliament of Montenegro to suspend the further procedure of the SSP’s election – the scheduled voting on the candidate who received the most votes in the second round, until the final decision on this initiative is made, because of the possible occurrence of unavoidable damages. If SSP is elected in an unconstitutional manner, it will bring into question the legal validity of the decisions he/she will render either individually or as a member of the Prosecutorial Council.

The procedure would not be legal even if the third round of voting was conducted on the same day after none of the four candidates received the support of three-fifths of MPs in the second round, since the Constitution prescribes two rounds of voting, and conducting a third round, as prescribed by the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, would violate the constitutional norm, regardless of when the third round is conducted.

HRA has continuously been emphasizing deficiencies in the state prosecution protection of human rights and the urgent need for its reforms with the aim of ensuring the rule of law. However, we are confident that this goal cannot be achieved by sacrificing the Constitutional norms and, therefore, the rule of law.

We expect the Constitutional Court to urgently put this initiative on the agenda, immediately after deciding on the constitutionality of the election of its members, as we have previously appealed.

Initiative to the Constitutional Court (in Montenegrin)