1 people moved to Savnik from July 337 until today, ahead of the local elections, announced Radovan Popović from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP).
He said at the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) conference on local elections that due to suspicions of abuse, the documentation was forwarded to the prosecutor's office.
He said there was no doubt that it was electoral engineering.
"If we take into account the level of development of Šavnik, these numbers cause doubts even for the layman," said Popović.
He said that most people came to Savnik from the municipalities where the elections were completed.
"The most came from Nikšić, about 250 people," said Popović.
He said that the MUP will not turn a blind eye to these abuses, even though the law does not prohibit a change of residence and that field checks are provided for foreigners only during the first change of residence.
The executive director of CEGAS, Marija Popović Kalezić, said that it is necessary to think about how to solve the problem of residence conditions due to numerous abuses of voting rights.
She said that it turned out that the lack of residence conditions was a big problem before the local elections.
According to her, the big problems are the non-implementation of legal solutions and the existence of several laws concerning electoral legislation, their inconsistency, resorting to political elites to change laws at a time of crisis without taking into account the collapse of the Constitution and laws.
She warned that this is something that further deepens the crisis in Montenegro, even when it comes to local elections.
"In a dysfunctional system and a moment of political crisis, we have the moment of voting for illegal and unconstitutional changes to the Law on Local Self-Government, and then to the set of laws on Zeta. With the absence of an institution that is very important to us at this moment, which is the full quorum of the Constitutional Court, the question is what can we expect and when will they make a decision on determining the legality and constitutionality of the Zeta laws, and what will happen when that decision follows the local elections on October 23," said Popović Kalezić.
She noted that it is necessary to have a law on local elections, which will cover the entire process and manner of holding elections in municipalities.
"Of course, the possibility of all the elections being held in one day is something that the civil sector stood for," she reminded.
If, as she added, there is no agreement to hold all the elections in one day, we should think about how to set the residence requirement in order to reduce abuses of voting rights.
Goran Durutović from the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) recalled that the election campaign lasts a long time, which affects citizens, due to numerous restrictions.
As for the residential condition, ASK, as he said, has no room to act but underlines that he is against such a practice.
He also stated that ASK has repeatedly emphasized that the problem of "official campaign" is not precisely regulated by law.
The President of the State Election Commission (SEC) Nikola Mugoša said that they are already facing certain objections and that some of them have been adopted.
He reminded that after the SEC rejected two objections from the Constitutional Court, they were informed that they will decide on this when the conditions are met, that is, when the judges are chosen.
"Judges should have been elected a long time ago and because of the role of the Constitutional Court, its other jurisdiction, not only when it comes to election appeals. Since there is no last instance for the protection of the right to vote, we do not have a comprehensive protection of the right to vote," he said. Mugosha.
He said that the reform of the electoral legislation is unfortunately a long way off, and it cannot have its epilogue for this election process, and the question is whether it can have it until the regular presidential elections.
He believes that the municipal election commissions made unacceptable mistakes when they did not return election lists that did not include the expected number of women.
"The lack of women on the lists is the reason for refusing to announce the lists," he said and added that the SEC has no legal ability to change the electoral lists that have been announced, nor to sanction municipal election commissions.
He reminded that the members of the MEC are members of political parties and are elected by the municipal assemblies and answer to the municipal assemblies, not the SEC.
His opinion is that, as he stated, there should be 40 percent women on the lists and that there should be one woman among every three candidates instead of the current four.
Zlatko Vujović from the Center for Monitoring (CEMI) said that the election process is conducted rather sloppily, when it comes to the state administration.
"The reason for this is not always lack of expertise, but the high degree of politicization of decisions made by the administration. Simply, the administration in Montenegro is set up in the wrong way... We should have a party-neutral administration, so that they do not negotiate on respect for the law," he said. Vujović.
He said that there were situations where members of election commissions said: "Yes, I know that I should vote in accordance with the law, but the party told me to vote against".
He believes that everything could be solved if there was a chapter in the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament "electoral system" and that chapter could only be changed by a two-thirds majority.
He says that the direct election of the mayor should be introduced.
"Why was it abolished? Because that mayor, let's say Miomir Mugoša, got 70 percent of the vote, much more than the party. When you get 70 percent, you feel that you are more powerful than the party... It doesn't suit the parties. Then the DPS, when Mugoša had an incident with the deputy editor of Vijesti, took advantage of the situation when he was politically weak, to change the law. Which is not a problem because of Mugoša, but it is because of all of us because we cannot elect a man who would have full legitimacy to carry out what he promised , and not what is the interest of a certain political party. Why? Because he has to come back in four years and say what he did," Vujović said.
Vujović said that now everything is imaginary, voting in local elections on national issues, identity...
"You have, not to say stupid, the term 'fundamental', where the Fundamental Agreement is used as an excuse to vote for someone in local elections. What does that have to do with it?" asked Vujović.
He believes that open lists should be proposed.
According to him, the problem of voters moving can be solved by holding all local elections in one day.
He reminds that voter lists are a big problem in Montenegro, but not exactly because of what people often think, which is double voters.
"There is no such thing. There is a problem with the non-updated administration of the deceased, predominantly outside Montenegro. For example, if someone is on the voter list of Montenegro, and he died in the USA. The authorities in the USA have been notified, but not in Montenegro, unless it is necessary due to probate proceedings".
He added that another important problem is illegally registered voters on the basis of illegally obtained dual citizenship, of which there are many.
Nina Blažić from the Ministry of Public Administration said that the Ministry does not have jurisdiction when it comes to electoral lists, but it carefully monitors the electoral processes.
She said that the reform of the local government system is high on the priority agenda of the Ministry.
Commenting on the fact that the Ministry of Justice gave an opinion that local governments, whose mandate has expired, can remain in power until a new one is elected, she said that the Ministry tried to ensure the functioning of the local government system.
Slađan Penev from the Macedonian Center for Strategic Research and Documentation said that their country is also facing the same problems and that "only when problems arrive at the door does their solution begin".
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
