The Constitutional Court yesterday at the same day scheduled and held a meeting at which are expressly rejected appeals that MANS submitted for the first set of complaints about electoral irregularities. This session was held in secret, and on the request of MANS that our representative is present on the session, we got an answer after the session, that that is not allowed.
MANS requested that as an observer of the electoral process participate in the work of the Constitutional Court, because based on a decision of the State Election Commission we were issued an official authority to follow the elections held on 05.25.2014, as well as all aspects of the electoral process, including the work of all bodies for election enforcement. The procedures for complaints about violations of election law, according to provisions of Article 110, Paragraph 2 of the Law on the Election of Members of the Parliament and Councillors, the Constitutional Court of Montenegro makes the final decision, and therefore we have the right to monitor how the Constitutional Court decides on appeals against decisions of the SEC.
In addition to the authority based on the decision of the State Election Commission and the law that as observers we have accordingly to the Law on the Elections of Members of the Parliament and Councillors, Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Law on the Constitutional Court of Montenegro stipulates the principle of transparency in the work of the Constitutional Court which is, among other things, ensured having a public hearing in the proceedings before the Constitutional Court. This was one of the foundations we relied on when we requested to attend the session of the Constitutional Court.
Finally, the supreme law of the country-The Constitution of Montenegro in Section 120 prescribes general principle of public hearing and the public can be denied only for reasons necessary in a democratic society, for example, public order, protection of the private life of the parties, in marriage disputes and in disputes related to guardianship or adoption, protection of military, work or professional secret and protection of safety and defense of Montenegro. As making a decision on the legality of the election process does not fall into any of the above reasons for exclusion of the public, the Constitutional Court in fact violated the Constitution of Montenegro itself, by denying MANS’s observers to monitor the session.
Since the end of the local elections, after which it was ascertained record number of complaints to their regularity, there are organized efforts of state institutions to exclude whole public from “processing” of official complaints.
First, the Election Commission of the Capital limited the public by the decision to deny to MANS to record the session, then the SEC closed its sessions for the public and denied the media to follow, and in the end the Constitutional Court prohibits even authorized observers to monitor their work.
Direct consequence of such decision of the Constitutional Court is that the first decisions on appeals against decisions of the SEC are made out of public sight, and because of that it is not clear why the Court rejected the appeals and on which basis, how the Court even considered the appeals and how the judges declared.
MANS today filed to the Constitutional Court 117 new appeals relating to 858 complaints rejected by the SEC, which is so far 314 appeals on total of 2.065 from 2.500 complaints that MANS filed to the competent authorities for irregularities recorded during the local elections in Podgorica.
MANS
