The regularity and legality of the election results in Tivat could be brought into the question because the larger number of people will be allowed to vote, even though their photos will not be placed in an electronic device for identification of voters, which is contrary to the Law on Election of Councillors and members of the Parliament. Therefore MANS invites on all deputies to urgently initiate proceeding before the Constitutional Court and ask for the abolition of the provisions from the Rules of Procedure of the polling station committees that allow actual circumvention of the control mechanisms foreseen by the new electoral legislation.
In fact, the State Election Commission prescribed the procedure with the Rules of Procedure of the polling station committees, which provides that and the persons whose photos are not included in the system of electronic identification can vote on elections in Tivat. However, this is contrary to the Law on Election of Councillors and Members of the Parliament which provides that the voter must be electronically identified to vote, and that identification devices must contained photos from the register of voters identity cards or passports (Article 68a para. 1 to 4).
MI announced that only in th eelections in Tivat 245 persons will vote although their photos will not be in an electronic system for the identification of voters. These persons have the right to vote but until now they have not removed their ID cards, so in the registry of the Ministry of Interior there are no photos of them. If those people renew personal documents before the local elections in Tivat will be able to vote, but their photos will not exist in the system of electronic identification, because the voters list has already been closed and the MI has no right to change it and adds new data.
This practice opens up a large space for manipulation of identity cards which actually bypass the new legal mechanisms, in particular the electronic identification system, so it is possible multiple voting of phantom voters with fake IDs.
In the case of Tivat, in the last local election threshold was only 192 votes, so the figure of 245 voters without a photo which was announced by the Ministry of Interior can provide entry of a political entity in the local parliament or even decide who will exercise power in the municipality.
Since the elections in Tivat are held for less than a week, the only legal option that exists for now is that the Constitutional Court repeals the provisions from the Rules of Procedure of the polling committee which violate the law and brings into question the regularity of the electoral process and results.
Therefore, we invite on all members of the Parliament to urgently initiate proceeding before the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of the Rules of Procedure of the electoral committees, and requesting the elimination of those provisions that allow circumvention of the actual control mechanisms foreseen by the new electoral legislation.
Vuk Maras
Director of Monitoring Program
