The Parliament of Montenegro had an obligation to elect the fourth candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court, as this would ensure that this Court had seven judges, as prescribed by the Constitution, enabling it to make a decision in any case. An even number of judges – namely, six – does not ensure this, because the votes can be divided without reaching the majority required for decision-making. Such a situation can complicate the decision-making process in potential election appeals regarding voting in the presidential election. The presidential election is scheduled for 19 March 2023, and the missing judge can be elected in a second round of voting no earlier than on 27 March.

In the second round, the fourth candidate – state prosecutor Faruk Resulbegović – will need the support of three-fifths of the MPs, i.e. 49 votes. However, it is highly possible that he will not be elected in the second round either, because at yesterday’s session he received 46 votes out of 78 MPs who voted (two Social Democrat MPs refrained from expressing their opinion, while one DPS MP was absent). If no one gets elected, the Constitutional Court will have to start a new procedure for electing a judge, which will last at least one month.

We are sorry to hear that the Bosniak Party did not support the candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court who belongs to the Albanian national minority.

Neither the Constitutional Court nor the Supreme Court of Montenegro has had a judge from the Albanian national minority to date, while there have been judges who were Bosniak. This fact additionally spoke in favour of electing a member of another minority to the Constitutional Court, in line with the Law on the Constitutional Court which stipulates that MPs should also take nationality into account during the process of election.

It is devastating that the desirable characteristics of judges of the Constitutional Court are reduced to national affiliation and preference for political parties. No objections were heard during the election process regarding candidate Resulbegović’s expertise, which happens to be the main election criterion.