Montenegro Opposition Slates Mayor's Diplomatic Post

The Montenegrin parliament's Committee on International Relations on Thursday failed to agree on the candidacy of the former Mayor of Podgorica, Miomir Mugosa, for the post of ambassador to Slovenia.

Opposition MPs and deputies from the junior ruling party, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, boycotted the session.

Some MPs have criticised the proposal on the grounds that Mugosa is still emeshed in corruption allegations.

Goran Tuponja, an MP from the opposition Positive Montenegro party, said accusations that Mugosa had been involved in "various frauds" needed clearing up.

The opposition also wants any hearing of Mugosa, who was mayor for 14 years, to be open to the public, an idea that the chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Miodrag Vukovic, has rejected.

The SDP spokesperson, Mirko Stanic, said deputies of his party did not attend the hearing because of  "previously assumed commitments".

Mugosa is held partly responsible for the break-up of a coalition between Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, and the SDP at city level.

The SDP quit the local government in Podgorica in 2010 and said it would not re-establish cooperation with the DPS while Mugosa was mayor.

His long reign as mayor ended last May when his party chief, Djukanovic, named a former Education Minister, Slavoljub Stijepovic, as his successor.

Mugosa's mandate was marked by numerous controversies and allegations of abuse of office - but he was never prosecuted.

On Monday, the city government in Podgorica formed a special commission to examine all his management team's deals in the capital since 2007. This  was a key demand of the SDP in order to provide a majority for...