During the election campaign for presidential elections, a number of abuses that could influence the election result were identified. Among them are the most problematic misuse of institutions in order to promote one candidate, as well as the use of public resources for the election purposes.
Conditions for the election match were not equal because the candidate of the ruling coalition and the election winner, Milo Đukanović, had an institutional advantage. In the capacity of a candidate, he visited public works and participated in the activities of state institutions, while other candidates did not get this opportunity.
Financing of the presidential election campaign could not be controlled due to the sudden change in practice of the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information. The Agency decided that political parties were not obliged to publish information on their finances after MANS had discovered suspicious donations during the previous elections.
The election campaign was marked by secret media donations where candidate Milo Đukanović also had an advantage. Media outlets close to the government, in addition to regular programme schedule, organized special shows to promote this candidate by violating a range of election and media laws. This media coverage was not reported or paid, and can only be treated as a secret donation.
During the election campaign, there was also an increased spending of the state budget, especially for assisting agricultural labourers and social protection, although the law prohibites the exceeding of average monthly consumption. Similar things have also been recorded in earlier election cycles, which indicates possible abuse of these budget funds in order to exercise unauthorized influence on voters.
Compared to the previous presidential elections, almost half of the voters’ data were changed in the voter list. However, due to a change in the law, the voter list could not be adequately monitored.
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