Voting by letter should be more precisely regulated because of abuses

Voting by letter enables numerous abuses, which is why this area needs to be specially regulated and its credibility and transparency established, the Working Group for Building Trust in the Electoral Process assessed today.

The working group continued to consider changes to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament, to which amendments were submitted by several parliamentary groups.

Milutin Đukanović from the Democratic Front (DF) believes that voting by letter should be determined differently.

"It would be good if family members submit a request to the municipal election commission, along with medical documents, that the person cannot vote independently, 48 hours before the election," said Đukanović.

He is of the opinion that the medical documentation should be submitted before the election so that the authorities have time to sort the voters by polling station.

"We just need to determine whether mobile teams should be formed at the municipality level or if we should lower them to the polling station level, we can agree on that," said Đukanović.

Dragan Koprivica from the Center for Democratic Transition, said that "we should not go into medical certificates and consilium because that would complicate the voting procedure".

According to him, the secrecy of voting was not guaranteed until now, and mobile boxes would solve the problem there.

He believes that polling stations should be opened in hospitals as well. "If he can be in the Prison for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions and in closed institutions, he can be in the hospital," Koprivica said.

The co-chairman of the working group, Srđan Milić, said that voters by letter are a group that should be watched in particular.

Milić believes that voting by letter should be tied to municipal election commissions and not go to election boards.

"All the material should be submitted to the municipal election commissions, for them to form teams, for them to include representatives of the government, the opposition and the non-governmental sector," suggested Milić.

The representative of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector, Vuk Maraš, believes that mobile units are necessary.

»I don't believe that we have so many immobile people who cannot vote. We must not make sense of that norm. If someone is hospitalized, he must be allowed to vote, but I don't want that right to be abused," said Maraš.

Maraš (MANS) and Koprivica (CDT) (Photo: Savo Prelevic)

Branka Bošnjak from the Democratic Front said that in the previous elections there was not a single polling station where there was regular voting by letter.

»And all polling stations had an unnatural number of requests for that type of vote. "Many young people were reported and there were obvious abuses," Bošnjak said.

According to her, most of them voted that way on Konik.

»It should also be arranged that one person cannot submit requests for more. It happened that one person submitted a request to vote for ten of them. An election taxi driver was even hired," said Bošnjak.

Member of the Democratic Party of Socialists, Mevludin Nuhodžić, said that the credibility and transparency of voting by letter should be increased.

He believes that special boxes should be introduced where voters who vote by letter will insert their ballots, in order to achieve greater transparency.

Nuhodžić suggested that the application for voting by letter should be accompanied by a copy of the identity card and that way the vote would be justified.

Maras believes that it is a good proposal.

Azra Jasavić from Positive Montenegro agrees that documentation justifying the request to vote by letter should be attached.

»Some of the documentation must be attached to protect them from abuse. On the other hand, we don't want anyone to be prevented from voting, to end the will to vote," said Jasavić.

Gošović (SNP): There are too many abuses

Neven Gošović from the SNP believes that everyone should be provided with the right to vote by letter, if there is a justified need, but to prevent possible abuses, which, he added, occurred to a large extent.

According to him, various models can be designed to prevent voting abuse.

"By going to the scene, the team can see if someone is working around the house, if they are active, they can determine whether they are able to vote or not," said Gošović, stating that possible medical documentation would simplify the process for the family and the voter. .

Maraš does not agree that it is possible to assess whether someone is capable of voting or not.

He believes that it is difficult to establish special polling stations in hospitals because each of the hospitalized is registered at a different polling station.

Goran Danilović from the DF believes that the essential essence is to ensure the secrecy of voting by letter.

"It should be ensured that the ballot is inserted into a special box that is sealed so that any attempt at abuse can be easily registered and thus invalidate the validity. Until now, the only guarantee was an envelope that could easily be replaced by another," said Danilović.

It is necessary, he believes, for the closest relative or family member to sign that they want to vote.

Gošović, commenting on the voting of people who are serving their sentence, said that they should exercise their right to vote only with an ID card.

From the session of the Working Group (Photo: Savo Prelevic)

"From the aspect of control, it is important to ensure that they have an identity card, which was not the case until now. Until now, they voted with a card containing identification data, but that is not enough," he said.

Emphasizing that the Electoral Legislation should be changed, Jasavić stated that the mandate should belong to the party, not to an individual.

»There is no one who can say that he won the mandate and not the party. We are witnessing the presence of political trade and corruption," said Jasavić.

Electoral legislation, she believes, opens up space for corruption and trade.

"It happens that an individual changes his mind overnight and the prosecutor cannot assess whether there was corruption," said Jasavić.

The deputy of the Social Democratic Party, Rifat Rastoder, said that such a solution would be unconstitutional.

Danilović added that there is no majority that would support that proposal.

"It's certainly good to shake up that topic, to think and get involved to see what we have to do," Danilović said.

Milić announced that he and the other co-chairman of the Working Group, Milutin Simović, will talk with the President of the Assembly, Ranko Krivokapić, about the reconstruction of the Election Law and introduce him to the recommendations.

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