The trial in the Basic Court of the accused representative of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Milena Orlandić, which is charged with destroying documents of the Municipal Election Commission, has been going on for a year.
Orlandić is on trial in the Basic Court in Podgorica, because on September 2, 2020, after the parliamentary elections, by inspecting election materials on behalf of DPS, she tried to cause irregularities at the polling station and create conditions for repeating the elections.
The first hearing was held in October last year, and after that it was postponed several times. The last time it was postponed was yesterday, because Orlandić informed the lawyer that she would not appear due to a death in the family, and the witness did not appear in court again. Mišela Manojlović.
Manojlović is a member of the DPS Municipal Board, according to the party's website, and she serves as the president of the second-level body - the Capital City Complaints Commission.
To the basic prosecutor's question Sinisa Milić whether the means of procedural coercion can be used, judge Rade Ćetković announced yesterday that the court will call Manojlović on the phone so that she will be personally served with a summons for the hearing, and if she does not come even after that, her presence will be forcibly secured.
On September 2, 2020, while inspecting election materials on behalf of the DPS, Orlandić, who was also the assistant director at the Podgorica public company Zelenilo, tried to cause irregularities at the polling station and create, as the opposition suspected, , conditions for repeating the election.
In the Official Note on the work of the Election Commission of the Capital City of Podgorica, it is written that in the official premises of the Assembly of the Capital City, during the control of election materials at polling station 63, the coupons were removed from the ballots by the authorized representatives of the DPS.
Member of the commission Nikola Terzic (URA) got up from his seat at that moment and loudly told the audience that he saw Orlandić, one of the authorized representatives, consciously removing the coupons during the counting of control coupons for that polling station. Two coupons were found under her feet and the chair.
Mismatching of ballots and coupons is considered one of the most serious violations in the electoral process.
At the beginning of the trial, Orlandić pleaded not guilty to destroying voting documents. She said that the control coupons were between her and commission member Nikola Terzić (URA), who was sitting across from her, and not under the chair and feet, as Terzić claimed.
"The news came out that I destroyed or took the coupons, which is nonsense. Something is being imputed to me that has already been established by the minutes at that polling station," said Orlandić.
The minutes signed by members of polling station 63 in Podgorica stated that one coupon was missing from the ballot. The Podgorica prosecutor's office claims that Orlandić's allegations that coupons were missing from the ballots at one election station in Podgorica, as she stated in her defense, are incorrect.
Terzić: Bringing the case to an end, it is important to restore confidence in the elections
Yesterday, Nikola Terzić told "Vijesta" that he believes that the biggest problem is the hearing of the witness and that he believes that there was enough time and legal possibilities to secure a witness who does not respond to the hearings in another way.
"I believe that it is very important that this case be brought to an end as soon as possible in order to restore confidence in the entire electoral system, especially in terms of the upcoming new local elections in Montenegro."
He said that in that procedure there is enough evidence and facts that were carried through the procedure and that it is quite clear that there was an abuse that day in front of the election commission, stating that "he encourages the court to resolve this case as soon as possible, in the first instance, so that things like this would never happen again".
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