Four rounds of election hell: Voting in Šavnik without end

It took two hours for the election curtain to come down in Šavnik after four rounds, but voting was still interrupted and voters will go to the polls again.

The election saga began in the town below Durmitor on October 23, when the elections were held and ended in thirteen municipalities, but even yesterday it was not finished at two polling stations - in the municipality building of Šavnik and the village of Kruševice.

Voting was interrupted around 18:XNUMX p.m. because the members of the polling committees from the Coalition "For the Future of Šavnik" did not allow part of the newly registered voters to vote because, they claim, they have nothing to do with Šavnik.

"I don't remember voting like this. If the old presidents Krsto Karadžić, Dragoljub Jakić, Bato Jelić were to stand up, they would not be comfortable with voting like this. Voting should be over and people should have come to their senses already, to know what they can do and what they can't do. Everything has an end," said seventy-five-year-old Miraš Jakić, who has a long voting record, but for the first time had to vote four times during the election process.

In vain and "peace mission"

And they will vote again, even though it almost ended the election farce.

"Well, it's more than enough. No. We let voters who are not from Šavnik vote, believing that it would be a reasonable number, but now you have gone too far. Here, they started coming en masse", said a member of the Electoral Committee from the opposition.

His colleagues from the ruling DPS-SD coalition asked the other party why they did not stop the voting when the first person who was not from Šavnik voted, but waited almost until the end.

And both of them "turned a blind eye", as they said, expecting that this time the voting would not be interrupted.

Even the president of the Electoral Committee in the village of Kruševice, Filip Stijepović, was convinced that this time the "setup" of the Electoral Committees was a "peace mission".

It turned out, however, that neither the "peace mission" would yield results, nor the kindness of the journalists who patiently explained to the voters where the polling station was located in the local government building.

The police prevented a fight, the mayor managed to vote

On the street in Šavnik, outside the polling station, there was almost a fight yesterday, which was prevented by the police.

As one of the young men, a sympathizer of the coalition "For the future of Šavnik", told "Vijesta", the incident happened because "a van from Podgorica full of election tourists" arrived in Šavnik.

"The van was parked near the municipality building. When we got to them, they ran away, but we intercepted them. We wanted to prevent them from voting. At our insistence, the police searched the van and found three batons and pepper spray. "Even one of the policemen took a baton from the van and hid it under his uniform," claims the young man.

Rajko Bajović from Šavnica voted for the fourth time in the municipal building, and will vote for the fifth, he said that the town was always popular, but that little attention was focused on this municipality.

The current president of the municipality and the holder of the list of the DPS-SD coalition, Jugoslav Jakić, was not lucky either - he did not vote the previous three times because the elections were interrupted in the early hours of the morning. He managed to vote yesterday and stressed that he is confident that election day will pass without incident.

The President of the MEC, Dušan Radanović, said that until 18:XNUMX the elections at both polling stations went on without irregularities, and then the voting was interrupted because the members of the polling boards did not allow the voters to exercise their right guaranteed by the constitution.

"The elections in those two places, in accordance with the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament, will be repeated again, most likely on Sunday, because we have to schedule a new vote within seven days at the latest," said Radanović.

The DPS-SD coalition won 21 votes at 549 polling stations, the "For the Future of Šavnik" coalition, which consists of the Socialist People's Party (SNP), the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) and the Democratic People's Party (DNP), 571, while the Coalition of Democrats , Europe now and United Montenegro, so far 99 voters have voted.

The opposition is stronger by 121 votes

According to the results so far, the opposition coalitions have 121 votes more than the ruling DPS-SD.

There are a total of 1 voters at polling stations number 541 (municipal building) and in the village of Kruševice, which is almost 27,5 percent of the total number.

483 voters were registered at the Šavnik polling station, and 58 in Kruševica.

At 21 polling stations, 1.231 voters out of 1.968 total registered voters have voted so far, which is 62,55 percent.

The elections in Šavnik were marked by a large number of newly registered voters, which is 2020 more than the 350 parliamentary elections, and 2018 more than the May 245 local elections.

From April 20 to October 20 this year, according to the voter list, 341 citizens moved to the town, but, as told to TV Vijesti, 32 people have already applied for a change of residence.

Since the beginning of the elections, one person has moved to Šavnik.

In the last local elections, the DPS-SD coalition won 19 mandates (862 votes), the SNP-DF coalition eight (381), while the Democrats independently won three mandates (152).

At that time, the turnout was almost 82 percent.

Applications are piling up

During the election irregularities that took place in Šavnik on October 23 and 30, the police filed 12 criminal charges against 17 persons, and for the committed 14 criminal acts related to violation of the right to vote, preventing voting, and destroying voting documents.

And on November 6, the police had work to do, and a member of the polling committee from the Coalition "For the Future of Šavnik" was attacked at the polling station in Kruševica, who escaped with minor injuries.

Due to the incidents of October 6, the police filed criminal charges against five people for violating the right to vote, causing minor bodily harm, assaulting an official in the performance of official duties, destroying voting documents and preventing voting.

Yesterday's failed vote was also followed by criminal charges.

In addition to a large number of incidents, attacks and endless voting, the Šavnica elections were also marked by a unified song by the members of the Election Committee in the village of Bijela, closed restaurants and a large number of policemen.

Šavnik is a town on three waters and with two dawns, but also with endless choices.

DPS: Choices turned into a joke

The local DPS announced that the election process had been turned into a shambles, and therefore completely "meaningless" and that members of the electoral commissions from the ranks of the DF once again prevented the holding of the election.

"All the efforts of our party, the numerous calls we made to the police and the prosecutor's office, were obviously in vain... By repeatedly committing crimes that fall under the group of crimes against electoral rights prescribed by the Criminal Code, the destructive and primitives continued their circus".

They assessed that the elections in Šavnik showed all the shortcomings of the state system and the fact that the institutions are not functioning, "because their representatives did not exercise their powers this time either in order to protect and respect the law and the Constitution".