During the last week MANS analyzed the Central electoral roll that will be used in the upcoming local elections, and determined that this document still contains a high number of irregularities, which seriously can compromise the legitimacy of the upcoming elections if the Ministry of Interior (MI) urgently does not carry out its inspection, in accordance with the Law. Therefore, we invite all parliamentary political parties to, in accordance with the Law on voters lists, submit to MI initiatives for the inspection of that document based on the cases that MANS published in the recent past.
So MANS also in the latest Central electoral roll identified a couple of hundreds of duplicates and over 10 thousand newly registered voters compared to the presidential elections, of which more than two thousand of those who are older than 40 years of age. This shows that there is a high possibility that before the upcoming elections a high number of phantom voters will vote using fake identification documents.
Also, comparing to the presidential elections, from the Central electoral roll was erased five and a half thousand people, of which over 450 people younger than 40 years of age, so there is a high possibility that those people deliberately denied the right to vote because they do not vote for the ruling party. This practice was confirmed by analysis of the Central electoral roll conducted by MANS because we identified hundreds of people who had a right to vote in the parliamentary elections, so they were erased from the electoral roll before the presidential elections, and then returned again in the electoral roll.
Therefore, we consider it necessary emergency inspection of the electoral roll, and for that reason in recent days we urged MI to do that ex officio. However, as in previous times, MI so far did not do anything to secure greater accuracy and timeliness of the electoral roll.
As a reminder, before the last presidential elections both candidates submitted to MI over 7000 initiatives for the inspection of the electoral roll, however, this institution did not conduct the inspection within 24 hours, actually before the election, which was required according to the applicable Law. MI then showed that there is no political will nor capacity to apply the Law.
How MI again would not make a farce of inspection of the electoral roll, we believe that it is necessary that all parliamentary political parties submit a motion for inspection of the electoral roll, using mechanisms that are offered through existing Law on the electoral rolls. In that way a legal obligation would be crated for MI to implement inspection of the electoral roll, when it is not willing to do it ex officio, as well as pressure of all political parties to create an equal election conditions for all participants. In this way, the election process would be deprived of duplicates and phantom voters who vote with double identification cards, and it would protect all individuals who have the right against unlawful deletion from the electoral roll.
MANS is inviting all parliamentary political parties to submit to MI initiatives for the inspection of the electoral roll on the basis on our analysis, because based on the current Law we as, non-governmental organization, do not have the right to independently initiate inspection of irregularities that we have discovered so far. This right we got with the new Law on electoral rolls, but the problem is that implementation of that law starts in the end of this year, and just then we will have a real possibility to get the voters’ lists that will be completely cleared of electoral manipulations.
We use this opportunity once again to invite all parliamentary political parties that on Monday submit initiatives for the inspection of the electoral rolls, so the inspection is carried out before the elections in Berane, and that document started to be cleared before the big local elections in the Spring of this year. We invite all parliamentary political parties who are willing to submit the initiatives to contact us as soon as possible so we can give them all information that we have discovered analyzing the electoral rolls, and to provide them with technical assistance in the development of the initiatives for the MI.
MANS
