Nenezić: Do everything so that the situation in Šavnik is not repeated in the second round of elections

Election day on Sunday passed peacefully, and the scope and nature of the irregularities found did not jeopardize the election process, said Ana Nenezić, head of the observation mission of the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI).

"The elections were competitive, with seven presidential candidates, without major problems in the organization. For the most part, the rights of candidates and voters to freely present their programs, i.e. exercise their right, were respected. mentioned several times as a negative practice," she said at the press conference where the report on the preliminary conclusions and findings of the "Citizen Monitoring of the 2023 Presidential Elections" was presented.

She appealed to the authorities to do everything so that the situation in Šavnik would not be repeated in the second round.

Nenezić pointed out that these presidential elections are also being held with unreformed electoral legislation, the implementation of which is chronically accompanied by problems, and the State Election Commission (SEC) has not yet been professionalized.

She added that in the SEC, the majority of decision-making is still held by representatives of political parties, and when making key decisions, they dominantly follow the interests of the parties they represent.

"Incomplete transparency in the work, as well as the lack of public broadcasting of sessions did not contribute to increasing public trust in the decision-making process. The presidential elections were held in the context of a political and institutional crisis with public political polarization of Montenegrin society".

She added that there was high concern about the influence of external factors, as well as the fear of potential cyber attacks.

Election administration analyst and SEC observer Vladimir Simonović said that the work of the SEC was not sufficiently transparent.

He cited the example that when the SEC discussed the candidacy of Milojko Spajić, the current leader of Europe, two sessions were held.

As he said, at the first session in the morning, one of the SEC members suggested that the session, which was held in the evening, be closed to the public.

"The decision of the SEC to open the session to the public was based on a five-to-five vote. So, five members of the SEC were in favor of closing the session to the public. So, in that context, we can conclude that The SEC is still not ready for full transparency of its work," said Simonović.

PR coordinator of CEMI, Maja Bjelic, speaking about the election campaign and the media, stated that the media market is pluralistic with the presence of a large number of traditional media.

"It is important to note that private media are predominantly from foreign ownership structures, which affects their editorial policy. Out of all televisions with national coverage, only one has a dominant Montenegrin ownership structure. In this way, a higher presence of a number of candidates in the public space is ensured. On the other hand On the other hand, the national public service respected the legal requirements and provided balanced coverage of the campaigns of all presidential candidates, however, the outdated approach in the conception of debates along with the rigidity of the rules did not give the candidates the opportunity to meaningfully and substantially present the programs," said Bjelic.

She also said that there is a noticeable increase in hidden advertising.

She reminded that campaign rules prohibit religious organizations from campaigning on behalf of or for the political needs of a party or candidate.

"Nevertheless, this was not absent in this election process either, so religious communities exerted influence on voters, that is, they called to vote for certain candidates or abstain from voting, and it is clear that religious communities should refrain from participating in pre-election activities." , said Bjelic.

The head of the legal team of CeMI, Ognjen Mitrović, said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs formed a coordination team to monitor the implementation of the institution's obligations arising from election laws, but that, contrary to current practice, members of domestic observation missions were not involved.

As he said, the collision of legal norms related to the beginning of the election campaign prevent precisely defined campaigns and the supervision of institutions, primarily the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.

"The shortcomings of the regulatory framework had a negative impact on the transparency and responsibility for the financing of election campaigns, which some candidates used to start the campaign before confirming their candidacy and without opening a separate account for campaign financing," Mitrović said.

He stated that there were numerous irregularities on the election day, but that they mostly stemmed from an imprecise legal framework and disagreements among the members of the polling committees.