After the publication “Who does Montenegro choose? – Gender, Age, Geographic, and Professional Structure of Electoral Lists in the 2023 Extraordinary Parliamentary Elections”, by Milijana Radulović, published by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) on the eve of the extraordinary parliamentary elections, we also point to the structure of the constituent convocation of the Parliament of Montenegro through the intersection of gender, age, geographic and professional dimensions. The structure of the constituent convocation, in general, indicates uneven regional and gender representation.
In the part of the regional structure, the largest number of MPs comes from the Capital City of Podgorica – 36 out of 81 MPs, or 44.44%. Nikšić follows with six, then Bar, Pljevlja and Ulcinj with four MPs each. There are three MPs each from four municipalities (Herceg Novi, Bijelo Polje, Plav and Rožaje), and there are also two MPs from four municipalities (Berane, Budva, Cetinje and Tuzi). Seven municipalities have one representative each (Danilovgrad, Kolašin, Kotor, Mojkovac, Plužine, Tivat, and Zeta). At the same time, the interests of five municipalities – Andrijevica, Gusinje, Petnjica, Šavnik and Žabljak – in the next four years will not be represented by any MP who comes directly from those municipalities.
Previously, CCE pointed to the decline in the representation of women in the constitutive convocation of the Parliament. We remind, that out of a total of 81 parliamentary seats, 17 belong to female MPs, that is, only 21%, while men have 79% (64 MPs). The legal obligation to have a minimum of 30% women on each electoral list did not have an adequate mirroring in their representation in the Parliament of Montenegro.
The average age of members of the constitutive convocation of the Parliament is 42, with the oldest member being 63 years old (from the coalition For the Future of Montenegro), and the youngest being 25 years old (from the list of Europe now Movement).
The professional profiles of the male and female members of political entities who have won mandates in the Parliament are diverse.
In more detail, the election lists that won seats in the Parliament of Montenegro have the following structure:
The Bosniak party will be represented by 17% of women and 83% of men. The youngest MP of this parliamentary club is 32 years old and the oldest 51 years old, while the average is 44 years old. In the professional structure, economists and professors are dominating. Out of the six deputies, two are from Rožaje, and one each from Bijelo Polje, Pljevlja, Plav and Podgorica.
Croatian Civil Initiative (HGI) will have one representative in the Parliament of Montenegro, and that will be a man, a graduate electrical engineer from Tivat, who is 42 years old.
Socialist People’s Party (SNP), which participated in the elections with DEMOS, will have two MPs – both men, with an average age of 51. One of them is an athlete and the other an economist, and they come from Plužine and Berane.
Albanian Alliance will have one male MP who is an economist by profession, from Ulcinj and is 51 years old.
In the coalition TOGETHER!, gathered around the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which also includes Social Democrats (SD), the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) and the Liberal Party (LP), 24% are women, while 76% are men, with an average age of 41. The youngest female MP is 25, and the oldest male MP is 58. The majority of MPs of this coalition are from Podgorica (9), followed by Nikšić, Ulcinj and Bar (2 each), then Bijelo Polje, Budva, Cetinje, Kotor, Plav, Pljevlja (1 each). The professional structure is diverse, with a slight advantage of economists, managers, professors and doctors.
The Parliamentary Club of the Movement Europe Now consists of 25% of women and 75% of men, with an average age of 39 years, with the youngest MP being 25 years old, who is also the youngest MP in this convocation of the Parliament, while the oldest MP is 61 years old. The most of MPs of this political entity come from the Capital City of Podgorica (18), and they have one MP each from Bar, Bijelo Polje, Danilovgrad, Herceg Novi, Nikšić and Rožaje. In the professional structure, the majority are lawyers, followed by political scientists and doctors.
The coalition of Democratic Montenegro and the United Reform Action (URA) in the Parliament of Montenegro is represented by 18% of women and 82% of men, with an average age of 41, while the youngest MP is 33 and the oldest 62. In the professional structure, there are mostly economists and lawyers. In the regional aspect, the largest number of MPs comes from Podgorica (5), and they have one MP each from Budva, Cetinje, Herceg Novi, Kolašin, Nikšić and Ulcinj.
The average age of MPs of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro, which consists of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD), the Democratic People’s Party (DNP) and the Labour Party (RP), is 47 years old, with the youngest MP being 31 years old and the oldest 63 years old, and he is at the same time the oldest MP in the constituent convocation of the Parliament. This parliamentary club consists of 23% women and 77% men. The majority of MPs are from the Capital City of Podgorica (3) and Pljevlja (2), followed by Bar, Berane, Herceg Novi, Mojkovac, Nikšić, Plav and Zeta with one MP each. In the professional structure, there are mostly lawyers, engineers and professors of Serbian language and literature.
The Albanian Forum will have two male representatives in the Parliament of Montenegro, whose average age is 53 years. Both are professors and come from Tuzi.
It is important to note that this structure will change after the election of the Government, bearing in mind that a number of MPs whose political subjects will form the Government, will then transfer to the executive power, and that they will be replaced in the parliamentary benches by colleagues from the electoral list according to the established order. Also, several members of Parliament already have public functions that are incompatible with parliamentary functions, so they will have to decide which one will they keep in the coming period.
The review of the structure of the constituent Parliament of the Parliament of Montenegro was made through the programme of the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), supported through the Core grant regional project SMART Balkan – Civil society for a connected Western Balkans, which is implemented by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD), the Center for Research and Public Policy (CRPM) and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) and is financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway. The content of the text is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of CPCD, CRPM, IDM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway.
Nikola Obradović, Project Assistant