Radovanović, Škrijelj and Lacmanović elected to Council of Radio Television of Montenegro

Pavle Radovanović, Amar Škrijelj and Radenko Lacmanović have been elected members of the Council of Radio and Television of Montenegro.

Radovanović, nominated by the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro, received the support of 62 MPs, while one abstained.

Amar Škrijelj, nominated by non-governmental organizations working in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms, was backed by 45 MPs, with one abstention.

Radenko Lacmanović, the nominee of the Paralympic Committee of Montenegro, secured the support of 45 MPs, while nine MPs abstained.

Ahead of the vote, Democratic Party of Socialists MP Aleksandra Vuković said she had revised her position and explained why she had abstained on the proposal to appoint Lacmanović to the Council.

- Article 22, paragraph 1, item 5 of the Law on the National Public Broadcaster stipulates that a member of the Council cannot be an official of a political party while holding that office, nor for at least three years after leaving it. Formally speaking, there are no major legal obstacles to this nomination. However, there are substantive concerns. In May 2020, we received a notification from Democratic Montenegro President Aleksa Bečić announcing that Mr. Lacmanović had joined the party and that, once the Council of Democratic Montenegro was established, he would become one of its members. Since then, we have not received any information indicating that Mr. Lacmanović has left the party. The only thing we know is that he was a candidate on the Peace Is Our Nation electoral list in the 2020 parliamentary elections. For that reason, I have revised my position and must remain abstained - Vuković said.

The public call for applications to fill several seats on the public broadcaster's Council was announced at the end of March this year. The former president of the Council, Veselin Drljević, withdrew his candidacy after a final court ruling found him guilty of abuse of office.