Montenegrins want change at this weekend’s parliamentary elections, but the elite that has ruled for nearly three decades has tried to manipulate the political process to ensure it remains in power.
About half a million voters will decide on a new government on Sunday. Photo: Pixabay.
On Sunday, an election battle will be waged in Montenegro over the fate of the longest-serving regime in Europe.
The country has been dominated by the regime of one party and indeed by one man for 27 years, but many believe that this system, which exchanged its ‘communist overcoat’ for a ‘democratic veil’, combines the worst of both.
Though free and fair polls are a constitutional obligation, all of the elections held to date in Montenegro have been marked by countless violations.
In exchange for votes, state resources have been abused, personal IDs bought, utility bills written off, a blind eye turned to illegal land development, prisoners paroled, welfare distributed, and more.
The local and international public has also been introduced to the concept of ’one employee, four votes’ (the parties in power offering the jobs to the potential voters expecting a support from their families) . Although some low-ranking executors of this system have ended up in court, those who ordered this abuse have remained untouchable.
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