Although local elections were recently announced in Herceg Novi, in Montenegro currently do not operate key provisions of three laws that define the control of the electoral process which at the beginning brings into the question legitimacy of the election.
In fact, key provisions of the Law on financing of political parties that prohibited misuses of public funds and functions for the purpose of the election campaign of the ruling party have been invalidated by the Constitutional Court. Thus, the officials now without any restrictions can employ voters in the public sector during the campaign, to buy votes by one-time social benefits without any control, to share grants, loans and other benefits, and in that way illegally influence the election results and the will of the citizens.
On the other side the Parliament still has not prepared a new draft of the Law on financing political parties, which would address these challenges even partially, but breaking the deadline and in theory made impossible that the elections in Herceg Novi are legally framed which would prevent misuse of public funds and authority for the purpose of the elections. Thus, even if the Law is adopted before the elections in Herceg Novi, it can not be applied, since elections must be held according to the laws that were in force at the time of the announcement.
Also, according to the announcements that come from the Government, until the elections in Herceg Novi the key components of the Law on Local Elections and the Law on the Electoral Roll realistically will not be applied, which aim to improve the control of persons who have the right to vote and those who vote. Even though formally both laws start to be applicable from November 1st, the announcement of the Government that the money for their application is not provided leaves a little space for improvement actually to happen, and that these norms really to start to function before the elections.
In practice that means that it is unlikely that for the election in Herceg Novi electronic identification of voters will exist, which suppose to be provided by the Ministry of Interior, and which would allow more precise control of the electoral roll and to ensure that on the elections vote only those who truly have the right to vote. The lack of full implementation of these provisions will ensure that the right to vote again use phantom voters and duplicates from the electoral roll, which we have established beyond doubt that they exist.
As well, until the elections in Herceg Novi it will not exist a single electoral list, linked with all other relevant registers such as registers of permanent and temporary residency, and also with the registers of births and deaths. The implementation of this solution in practice would lead to increase of the accuracy and update of the electoral roll, and to clear it up from phantoms, duplicates, deceased persons and those who have lost their voting rights based on the termination of the permanent residency and relocation to another country.
All mentioned points to the fact that the Government and the ruling structure apparently decided to systematically collapse the entire electoral process and to finally legalize all mechanisms for vote buying on which testifies scandal “Snapshot”, and as well numerous studies conducted by MANS which prove that the vote buying is reality in Montenegro.
It is particularly problematic that the governing structure in this way relates to the election process, bearing in mind that the building trust in elections is a key priority of Montenegro in the process of EU integration, and that such irresponsible behavior of the Government and the ruling structure for sure will be recognized in the statement of the progress of Montenegro expected in October.
Vuk Maras
Director of Monitoring Program
