While the current composition of the State Election Commission (SEC) is spending the last days of its mandate, part of the non-governmental sector says that the institution needs to be professionalized, in order to make decisions more independently and transparently and to narrow the space for greater party influences, which have been evident so far. .
However, there are no such announcements from the parties.
The current convocation of the SEC was elected in 2020, and at the end of November, the parliamentary Administrative Committee invited party representatives to propose candidates for committee members. The mandate of the current members lasts until new ones are elected.
As the President of the Administrative Board confirmed to the News Jelena Nedović, the parties have not yet submitted any proposal, and the deadline for this expires in six days - November 13.
Some of the parties unofficially informed the news that they have not yet agreed on the candidates to be elected by the Assembly.
The current members of the SEC are: Koča Đurišić i Nataša Prelevic (coalition for the future of Montenegro - ZBCG), Milisav Coric (Socialist People's Party), Vladimir Čađenović (Democrats), Nataša Pešić, Vera Mijatović i Nikola Dedeić (Democratic Party of Socialists - DPS). Members are i Aleksandar Jovićević (Social Democrats - SD), Haris Mekic (Bosniak Party - BS) i Damir Suljević (representative of the Center for Civic Education - CGO). The president is Nikola Mugoša. Only Mugoš and Suljević's mandate is not expiring now.
Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) Milena Gvozdenović, told Vijesti yesterday that depoliticization, professionalization and centralization of the electoral administration must be the key task of electoral legislation reform.
"In almost all election cycles, the work of the election administration was characterized by the adoption of selective and legally highly questionable decisions, all with the aim of achieving advantages for individual candidates," she assessed.
Gvozdenović states that the mandates of the SEC were mostly marked by the adoption of controversial and politically motivated decisions, which, he says, apart from public criticism, also resulted in criminal charges and decisions that were "fallen" in the Constitutional Court.
He emphasizes that the experience of monitoring their work and election processes in the previous ten years shows that such behavior of the majority of members of the election administration is not an exception, but the rule, and that it was always repeated when it came to the interest of certain political structures that have a majority in the SEC. in or in municipal commissions.
"And I think that members from the ranks of the parties themselves knew that they would be dismissed if they did something that contradicted the expectations or dictates of the parties they represent in the SEC. "It speaks volumes that when making controversial decisions, the professional members of the SEC were outvoted by those chosen by the parties," said Gvozdenović.
He reminds that only this year it was possible to see what political voting looks like and why parties should not have a key say in the SEC.
"I will remind the citizens of the action of the parties in the SEC, which in cooperation with the Republic Election Commission (REC) of Serbia contested the candidacy Milojko Spajić for the president, and then we had complete silence a few months later for the parliamentary elections, when it did not have the same political relevance and when there was no political interest, so Spajić was not contested as the holder of the Europe Now Movement list", adds Gvozdenović.
The request to the RIK was submitted on the proposal of DPS, SD and BS, and it was supported by the ZBCG coalition. It was submitted before Spajić formally ran for the position of head of state.
Collaborator on programs at the CGE and member of the SEC Damir Suljević, told the News that in the last period, especially since the opening of SEC sessions, the public was able to witness the way of work of that institution and recognize the need for some form of professionalization of its composition.
"Nevertheless, despite the need to realize this as soon as possible, I believe that this story should be approached very cautiously, so that professionalization, which must ensure integrity and independence, would not only be de lege, but also de facto," said Suljević.
He pointed out that he mentions this, because there is a practice in Montenegro that shows that even legal prerequisites are not always a guarantee of true independence and professionalism.
"For example, we have the RTCG, which, regardless of good legal solutions, still remains subject to political and other influences, then the Constitutional Court, where the selection of missing judges is, as a rule, carried out according to the political suitability of the candidates, and not through an assessment of their quality.
We had similar situations in the case of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils, where each parliamentary group fought and is still fighting for its influence in those bodies," emphasizes Suljević.
He adds that the professionalization, or at least the partial professionalization of the composition of the SEC, would affect the fact that decisions are made more constructively, independently and transparently, thereby narrowing the space for greater party influence.
"In that direction, the need to define a different model of participation of authorized representatives of candidates for electoral lists in election commissions was emphasized. Not infrequently, their number in election commissions dominates in relation to the number of permanent members, and with the same right to participate and vote as permanent members, they can influence that slightly different decisions are made," Suljević assessed.
The Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament specifies that the SEC in its permanent composition is appointed by the Assembly, on the proposal of the Administrative Board.
The commission consists of the president and ten permanent members and one authorized representative of the applicant of the electoral list. The President of the SEC is appointed by the Assembly, on the proposal of the Administrative Board after a previously conducted public competition. SEC President Mugoša was elected to the position at the end of 2021.
Four members of the permanent composition of the commission are appointed on the proposal of the parliamentary majority, while also four members of the permanent composition, one of whom performs the function of secretary, are appointed on the proposal of the opposition.
One representative of the party, i.e. the applicant of the electoral list for the authentic representation of a member of a minority nation or a minority national community, which received the largest number of votes in the previous elections, is also appointed as a member of the permanent composition, and his deputy should be a member of another minority nation or a minority national community. community.
One member of the permanent composition is appointed by the Assembly, on the proposal of the Administrative Board, and after a previously held public competition from representatives of civil society, the non-governmental sector and universities.
According to the law, representatives of the electoral lists are appointed as members of the permanent composition on the proposal of the majority, that is, the opposition, in proportion to the number of mandates won in the elections, and in the case of the same number of mandates, they are appointed from the electoral list that received more votes in the elections.
Members of the SEC, their deputies and authorized representatives are appointed from the ranks of law graduates.
Gvozdenović: "Eliminate" politics from election administration
Milena Gvozdenović assesses that Montenegro does not have an election administration that would protect democracy and increase citizens' trust in elections.
"If we want changes, we have to 'throw' politics out of the electoral administration, so that the parties, in the simplest terms, do not judge the game in which they participate. This means that the State Election Commission should be composed of members who meet the high requirements of expertise and political impartiality. This is crucial in order to get an institution with integrity that deals with the electoral process", says the interviewee.
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