Abazovic Promises Montenegro’s New Govt Will Hold Elections in 2023

Montenegrin Prime Minister-designate Dritan Abazovic at a press conference. Photo: Government of Montenegro

Abazovic said that the mandate of his government will be one year, and that its main task will be to prepare state institutions for next spring's early elections.

"The idea is to unblock Montenegro and choose functional institutions instead of chaos… We are not against elections, but institutions must first become operational," Abazovic said at a press conference.

"At the moment we have support from 46 MPs in the 81-seat parliament, but I will open a dialogue for electing a new Supreme State Prosecutor and Constitutional Court members. With the help of other parties, we could have the necessary 49 votes for those reforms," he added.

According to the constitution, the election of the Supreme State Prosecutor requires the votes of a two-thirds majority of MPs, or 54, with the bar falling to 48 MPs in a second-round vote.

Abazovic, the leader of Black on White, the smallest bloc in the former ruling coalition, was proposed as prime minister on March 2.

The proposal was backed by his own Black on the White block, the ruling Socialist People's Party, the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists, the Social Democratic Party, the Bosniak Party, the Social Democrats and two ethnic Albanian coalitions.

Abazovic said his government will have four deputy prime ministers and 20 ministers, and that he will present their names in the next few days.

He stressed that government will decide with two-thirds support about the signing of a fundamental agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church, a population census and joining the Open Balkan cross-border economic initiative.

Socialist People's Party MP Dragan Ivanovic...