All the committees were constituted in the Assembly on Friday, but no one mentioned the most important one for the implementation of reforms from the EU agenda - the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform. "Vijesti" interlocutors point out that a prerequisite for electoral reform is a stable political situation and appeal to open the issue as soon as possible.
President of the State Election Commission (SEC) Nikola Mugoša says that he hopes that the new convocation of the Assembly will finally make a step forward and implement the electoral reform, but bearing in mind the previous experience - he expresses caution.
"The prerequisite for the electoral reform is a stable political situation, since it implies the agreement of at least two thirds of the deputies. The achievement of a political agreement is crucial for the success of this process. Let's remember that there were already certain progressive legal solutions, which could not be standardized and implemented precisely because of the lack of political agreement", said Mugoša to "Vijesta".
It seems, as he says, that political subjects must understand that electoral reform benefits society, and that this implies that the parties give up certain mechanisms that have been at their disposal until now.
Inglorious jubilee and hope
Mugoša reminds that in a few months it will be 10 years since the last electoral reform, which only partially improved the electoral environment:
"This infamous jubilee reminds us how late this process is. For several election cycles, evaluations on the need for comprehensive harmonization of electoral legislation, improvement of the regulation of financing of political subjects and election campaigns, registers of residence, voter list, as well as strengthening of the capacities of the SEC and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) have been followed for several election cycles.
Program associate at the Center for Civic Education (CGO) Damir Suljević says that it is not a surprise that due attention was not paid to the electoral reform at the beginning of the work of this parliamentary convocation, especially if one takes into account that the electoral reform was not adequately mentioned or was not mentioned at all even by the Prime Minister (Milojko Spajic) nor the President of the Assembly (Andrija Mandic) when taking office.
"It remains to be hoped that this body will be formed by the end of this year and that it will serve as a space for dialogue between different political options, but that there will also be space in it for representatives of civil society whose opinion should be adequately respected", said Suljević to "Vijesti".
Voters' lists, Šavnik, Andrijevica..
Earlier, the Parliament unofficially told "Vijesti" that the plan is to form that committee, however, the Office of the President of the Assembly did not answer questions about when the committee will be formed and whether they will start a parliamentary dialogue on it.
Members of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform in previous convocations failed to reach an agreement and reform the electoral legislation. This is why the voter's list is still in disarray, the local elections in Šavnik have not been completed for more than a year, in Andrijevica a group of citizens is making it impossible to hold a session of the local parliament...
This was stated by the European Commission in a new report for Montenegro.
"The mandate of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform expired on July 31, 2022. No progress has been made in following up on OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and key issues related to electoral legislative reform, the voter register, financing of political entities and election campaigns, residence registers, the code of ethics of the election campaign and proposals for strengthening the professionalism and transparency of the work of the State Election Commission and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption," the report stated.
The EC points out that in the absence of a comprehensive reform, the SEC implemented improvements in the areas under its exclusive competence and increased the overall transparency of its work.
"However, the politicization of the SEC prevents it from performing the role of an independent body for managing elections. "Especially on the eve of the first round of presidential elections, the SEC made legally disputed decisions guided by politically appointed members," the EC report says.
In mid-February, the SEC rejected the candidacy of the leader of the Europe Now Movement, Milojko Spajić, for president of the country, after they received documents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia that Spajić also had citizenship of that country. This caused an uproar in the public, because according to the opinion of experts, as well as some members of the SEC, the Commission overstepped its authority when it requested information about Spajić from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia.
Nikola Mugoša says that he is encouraged by the European Commission's Report on Montenegro for 2023, which more than ever before highlights the importance of electoral reform for the functioning of democratic institutions, and thus the fulfillment of EU political criteria.
"The issue of professionalization of the State Election Commission was once shyly mentioned and was addressed dominantly by credible NGOs that monitor the exercise of political rights. However, today we have come to the point that the majority of political entities are in favor of this type of election administration, and I have not heard any opposition to this concept," he said.
To the majority on the field, not in the SEC
As he added, this is an example where political entities should give up the opportunity to influence the election administration, but also understand that in the long term, everyone wins that way, and that the political fight is won "on the ground" and not mostly in the SEC. in.
"One of the examples of the abuse of the politically colored administration is the case of Šavnik, where elections cannot be held because there is no majority in the municipal election commission to make a decision on a repeat. "All election processes in the past year confirm that there should be no place for politics in election commissions," said Mugoša.
Damir Suljević believes that the success of the work of the Committee for Electoral Reform will be measured by the quality of the work performed, and not by the speed with which it is realized:
"It is not a simple job and it is to be expected that it will last, that is why there is a need to open this issue as soon as possible, in order to succeed in realizing it in a certain period of time. I appreciate that this convocation of the Assembly has the possibility to successfully end that process, especially because by now it has already crystallized what would be the potential solutions".
At the end of December 2020, a few months after the DPS was replaced, the Assembly passed the Decision on the establishment of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform, but it started working even seven months later, in April 2021. The Committee held only six sessions, but since it had the same number of members from the government and the opposition, it was not possible to reach an agreement. A similar fate was experienced by the previous Board, which was formed in 2018 and was managed by DPS. The opposition at the time also boycotted the work, which was halted ahead of the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Religion at the end of 2019.
Suljević: All parliamentary parties are responsible
Suljević assessed that the responsibility for the fact that the election laws have not yet been amended, that the voter list is not in order, is borne by all parliamentary parties.
"On the one hand, we have a government that has harshly criticized all these problems from the opposition benches, and has done nothing to solve them since taking power, while on the other hand, we have an opposition that, unlike the previous opposition, does not emphasize the need for reform at all. It is obvious that in the sea of populist issues, which are raised more and more often, the need for better solutions to what is the basis of the legitimacy of political representatives, which is the electoral will, has been ignored," he said.
Mugoša: Changing the law did not finish the job
Mugoša states that the electoral reform requires considerable time, bearing in mind the set of structural laws that need to be changed.
"Personally, I would be satisfied if this complex normative undertaking would be completed within the next year. I would like to point out that the electoral reform itself does not end only with the amendment of the law. Only after that, there will be a whole period of harmonization of by-laws of several institutions, education of municipal election commissions, polling boards, implementation of certain solutions, and it should be understood that institutions need at least half a year to a year to realize and implement all these activities," he said.
He says that we must not forget that elections do not exist because of institutions and parties, but because of citizens, so time and resources should be planned to familiarize voters with the new solutions, so that they have confidence in the new rules and in the election process as a whole.
"What I particularly want to emphasize is that the electoral reform process should be inclusive and that, apart from the parliamentarians, who ultimately make the decision, it should include universities, NGOs that deal with electoral issues, as well as everyone who can contribute to achieving the highest quality and sustainable solutions. The basis of any healthy electoral environment is trust in institutions and among political competition. This is what we should all work on together and we should not hope that the electoral reform will fully achieve this goal, but quality legal solutions are certainly a good foundation for further upgrading that will at least bring us closer to an improved electoral environment", said Mugoša.
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