(Podgorica, 8 April 2013) – Yesterday’s elections have confirmed our suspicions that the pre-election irregularities, examples of bribery, and manipulation of voter lists had as their ultimate aim the fixing of election results in favour of the ruling party’s candidate.
It’s undeniable that the elections were held in an environment accompanied by brutal violations of the Law on Voter Lists, that many citizens were denied the right to vote, while ‘phantom’ and ‘clone’ voters were allowed to remain on the voter lists. All legally mandated deadlines were violated during the elections and the electoral process unfolded in a wholly irregular fashion.
If the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) had secured the minimal conditions for regular voting, today we would not find ourselves in a position where ‘phantom’ voters are bringing into question the final results of the election.
MANS has information concerning numerous irregularities that occurred in the field. Not only did a large number of citizens find that they were illegally denied the right to vote by being eliminated from the voter lists, others found that their polling stations were changed without being informed, often resulting in a denial of their ability to vote.
Numerous citizens also reported to us that on the day of voting, they saw the names of deceased members of their families on the electoral list, as well as individuals who’ve been living abroad for years listed. There is reason to suspect that some residents living abroad had the costs of their travel to Montenegro subsidized in order to enable them to vote.
There are also concrete examples of the purchasing of ID cards on the day of the elections, including the existence of material evidence that has been presented to the ODIHR. Some 600 ID cards were found in the possession of only a few dealers, indicating suspicions that the number of cards actually purchased is much, much higher.
We’re convinced that all of these irregularities have significantly influenced the performance of the ruling party’s candidate.
Given that all of the evidence of electoral irregularities was ignored by the responsible institutions, who tried to dismiss them instead of investigating them. Knowing that the ruling party holds a majority in the State Electoral Commission (DIK), we believe that even this institution may be manipulated in order to illegally declare victory for the ruling party.
For this reason we call on the international community to actively involve itself in this process in order to prevent electoral fraud. We believe that the citizens will not allow their votes to be stolen and that they will defend the integrity of their votes.
MANS will today publish a detailed analysis of the voter list in Rožaje, where the most obvious electoral irregularities were noted.
