The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) announced that the State Election Commission (SEC) has, by its actions, become a direct participant in the presidential elections, instead of the institution that implements the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament.
"The decisions made by the majority in the commission clearly show that it aims to determine the final result of the election," said CDT deputy executive director Biljana Papović.
As he says, "instead of consistently and impartially implementing legal procedures, the political majority in the SEC chose to obtain data from foreign countries about potential candidates in ad hoc procedures, designed for one-time political use, in such a way as to request only those data that go to damage to one candidate and to accept the documents published on social networks and/or in the media as legal facts, without it being previously established in the proceedings before the competent state authorities of our country".
"With this, she stepped out of her legal framework and unequivocally demonstrated bias and selectivity," the CDT press release states.
Papović points out that they have repeatedly called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) to initiate proceedings against all candidates for whom there is even the slightest suspicion that they illegally possess the citizenship of Serbia or any other country.
"We also, very strongly, condemned the deception of the public by potential presidential candidates and the attempt to avoid possible responsibility and strict application of the law with lies and deceptions," said Papović.
He emphasizes that the strict application of the law means that in the appropriate procedures, all the facts must be established and based on that, a decision must be made about each candidate individually.
Papović adds that media allegations can be "good initial information for alerting the public and competent institutions in case of any abuses, but they must not be taken as the ultimate fact, i.e. the basis for action without adequate procedure and verification".
He also claims that the only institution that can conduct proceedings and make decisions about the possible revocation of residence and citizenship and active and passive voting rights is the MUP, which must do so as soon as possible.
"The SEC must, only and only, make its decisions on the basis of documents obtained from Montenegrin state authorities," Papović pointed out.
As he says, the Code of Good Practices in Electoral Matters of the Venice Commission stipulates that an individual can be deprived of the right to vote and be elected only under conditions such as, "deprivation provided by law, respect for the principle of proportionality and deprivation must be based on mental incapacity or criminal convicted of a serious crime".
Papović also adds that the conditions for depriving the right to run in elections can be less strict than for depriving the right to vote, because it is a matter of performing a public office and it is legitimate to reject the candidacy of persons whose actions in such office would violate the public interest.
"However, even then the reasons must be established in the Constitution or the law," claims Papović.
"The SEC, after departing from the legal framework of action and conducting international investigations, through dubious channels of communication with foreign countries, introducing institutions of foreign countries into our election process, initiating proceedings against voters who were not candidates, after a selective approach and checks of some but not all candidate, duplicitous behavior related to the protection of personal data, created unprecedented precedents in the behavior of the institution that conducts elections," said Papović.
That is why he believes that the SEC has become a participant in the election process.
"As a response to the caring members of the SEC who justified their position with the situation that can happen if Spajić (interestingly not Mandić) is elected president and loses Montenegrin citizenship in the initiated procedure, we say - serious institutions do not "solve" hypothetical situations but apply the Constitution, laws and international standards," she said.
"This is how difficult issues are resolved in democracies. Legally, ethically and in good faith. In contrast to what we live in every day and which is far from democracy," the announcement concludes.
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