Earlier, the government discussed that the conditions for obtaining citizenship in Montenegro could be eased. In this way, the country would gain another 13 to 15 thousand voters who are in Montenegro with temporary residence permits. These are mainly citizens of Serbia, Russia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, on April 8, the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, Boris Maric, stated that the amendments to the decision on the criteria for determining the conditions for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship by admission would not lead to any electoral engineering or changes in the population structure
If the new amendments were approved, more than 40 thousand citizens of Montenegro living in other countries, the so-called “diaspora representatives,” could lose the right to vote. The opposition called these measures “a recipe for the destruction of Montenegro” or “a threat to sovereignty”.
Therefore, yesterday protests by citizens dissatisfied with the new amendments took place in many Montenegrin cities. Several hundred residents gathered in front of government buildings, and many roads across the country were blocked. This was reported by the news agency RCTG.
Elena Markovic from the municipal council of the Liberal Party of Montenegro was at a meeting with Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic, and asked him to address the crowd in front of the government building or to convey in writing to the demonstrators confirmation of the refusal of the adopted decision.