In the Final Report of the OSCE/ODIHR observer mission, after the parliamentary elections in Montenegro held in 2016, a priority recommendation with the following content was sent to Montenegro: In accordance with the previous recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR, the residence requirement and legal competence for voting should be changed so that they are in accordance with the Constitution, as well as international obligations and good practice.
The Constitution of Montenegro, in Article 45, determines that the voter, as the bearer of sovereignty, has the right to directly elect deputies and councilors and be elected as councilors and deputies, as well as that the voter has the same right to vote and be elected. The Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament, in Article 82, stipulates that voting is done by rounding up the electoral list, which means that the voter votes for the electoral list and the party president determines which candidate from the list will receive the mandate. In this way, the voter cannot, in accordance with the Constitution, exercise the right to vote, a fundamental human right, to directly vote or be elected.
The recommendation clearly indicates that the law determining the vote is not in accordance with the Constitution and should be harmonized with it.
The only known way in the world for a voter to directly elect a member of parliament and councilor is to highlight the names and surnames of all the candidates on the electoral list, below the name of the electoral list, so that the voter can directly choose a candidate from the list and so that all candidates from the list had the same right to be directly elected. That the election list be opened, that voters can see the names and surnames of all candidates and vote for one of them directly. The Democratic Party of Socialists does not want to act in accordance with the priority recommendation of the OSCE/ODIHR observer mission and sign the proposal to open electoral lists, which is in the parliamentary procedure and was signed by 27 deputies of the Assembly of Montenegro.
Voters in Montenegro do not have equal voting rights. Voter Milo Đukanović has by far the greatest right to vote, and that is why he is the most powerful voter, a citizen of Montenegro. Voter Milo Đukanović, president of DPS and President of Montenegro, one of the 530.000 voters in Montenegro, refusing to propose as president of DPS that DPS act in accordance with the priority recommendation of the OSCE/ODIHR observer mission, does not want to deny himself the power that he now has has, that as a voter, on the basis of the DPS Statute, determines the order on the DPS electoral list and thus personally elects 35 deputies in the Assembly of Montenegro, one month before the day set for the election, when the electoral lists are published. Through a coalition with six more MPs, it achieves an over-half majority in the Assembly of Montenegro and practically, the Assembly of Montenegro becomes a private assembly of Milo Đukanović's voters. That is not the end of the power of voters Milo Đukanović - the private Assembly of voters Milo Đukanović elects the Government of Montenegro in which there is no opposition, so voter Milo Đukanović becomes the 100% owner of the executive power in Montenegro. It doesn't end there either, the voter Milo Đukanović, through his 35 private deputies, elects: the Supreme State Prosecutor, the President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, judges of the Constitutional Court who, in order to protect the power of M. Đukanović's voters because he elected them through his private deputies, directly right to vote from Art. 45 of the Constitution is interpreted as the voter's right to vote in person, contrary to the rest of the world.
The Private Assembly of Montenegro also elects five out of ten members of the Judicial Council, the RTCG Council, the protector of human rights, the governor of the Central Bank, the Government finances a large number of non-governmental organizations, etc.
By opening electoral lists, in accordance with the Constitution, international obligations, the Code of Good Practice of the Venice Commission, in accordance with the stated priority recommendation of the OSCE/ODIHR observer mission, the citizens of Montenegro with the right to vote, would realize a fundamental human right - the right to vote. Montenegro would get a national assembly, and the voting right of voter Milo Đukanović would be equal to the voting rights of the other 530.000 voters in Montenegro, how would voter Milo Đukanović lose the power he has now, he would no longer personally elect 35 deputies, a month days before the election, all the candidates, including the candidate voter Milo Đukanović, would be elected directly by the other voters, and who would get the mandate would be known after the election, based on the votes received by each candidate from the list. MPs would know that they received their mandate from other voters, citizens, and not from Milo Đukanović's voters, and they would advocate for the interests of citizens, not for the private interests of Milo Đukanović's voters.
The author is a representative of the Civic Action Voter Group
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