The Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information (AZLP) issued an opinion yesterday that the request of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) to gain insight into voter support signatures on the basis of which candidacies for the upcoming presidential elections are confirmed, is not in accordance with the Law on Protection personal data.
The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) sent a request to the State Election Commission (SEC) ten days ago to inspect the signatures of support for the candidates for the presidential elections, and on February 13, the SEC requested the opinion of the AZLP.
In the opinion of AZLP, it is stated that the Council of the Agency indicates that the rights of observers, in accordance with the special regulations in force, especially respecting the reference provisions of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament and the Law on the Electoral List, to monitor the course of the election and the work of the election enforcement body, do not include the right to inspect the list of voters who gave their support for the electoral list/candidate for the election of the President of Montenegro, and that the legal requirements for the processing of personal data have not been met.
The Council states that, bearing in mind that the request for inspection by the CDT for monitoring the election process does not refer to the entire data contained in the form for giving signatures of support, but only to the inspection of the signatures of the voters who supported the lists, the Agency's Council indicates that personal data cannot be processed in a way that is not in accordance with its purpose, if the purpose has been changed, is illegal or has already been achieved.
This, as they clarified, means that the SEC, as the competent authority, evaluates whether the election lists for deputies have been drawn up and submitted in accordance with the Law.
"... The method of verification implies that the verification of voter support signatures is carried out exclusively by persons authorized by the Commission, whether the signature of support is given on the prescribed form, contains all the elements prescribed by the form, whether the person giving the signature is entered in the voters' list, whether the person giving the signature is of support supported the same electoral list, that is, the candidate", states the opinion of the AZLP, which was signed by the President of the Council Željko Rutović.
Deputy Executive Director of CDT Biljana Papović announced yesterday that the SEC, instead of enabling the smooth exercise of the right to observe the election process for domestic and international observation missions, as was done in previous election cycles, decided to reduce the transparency of its work, violate the fundamental rules of election observation, and shift the responsibility for it on AZLP.
She announced that the verification of signatures of support and confirmation of candidacies is an essential segment of the election administration's work, and that denying them access to signatures, not to mention other personal data of citizens, deprives them of the opportunity to do their job.
Bonus video:
