Although the city election commission (IC) and the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) announced that there were no major irregularities at the polling stations yesterday, election day was marked by DPS claims that it registered hundreds of citizens who voted illegally.
Head of DPS Danijel Zivkovic previously, on Saturday, he submitted to the police a list with the names of 2.300 people who, apart from Podgorica, have the right to vote in Serbia or the Republika Srpska (RS), and that party published dozens of photos of vehicles registered in Serbia and the entity of Bosnia the night before and yesterday. and Herzegovina (BiH), which, as they said, they recorded in Podgorica and on Montenegrin roads.
Živković said yesterday that on that and the previous day, compared to the same period last year, 14.000 more people entered Montenegro.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) announced that after checking the list of 1910 people that the DPS leader submitted to the police, it was determined that only five people were registered in the voter list after December 31, 2020, that is, during the post-DPS government mandate. while the Police Directorate (UP) stated that 14.000 fewer passengers entered Montenegro over the weekend compared to the previous one, denying "that today's local elections led to a higher number of passengers entering".
"From (Živković's) list submitted to the Police Directorate, 54 entries and 67 exits of persons were registered in the last three days", UP announced on Iks.
The NSD and the Democrats strongly criticized the moves of the DPS. The head of NSD and the Assembly, Andrija Mandić, assessed that Živković "grossly violated the election silence", violated the law and potentially committed a criminal offense - false reporting, while the Democrats stated that the DPS "is now trying to subvert the voters he registered in the voter list to others".
The Basic Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica announced that it would check all irregularities, and the DPS welcomed that message, saying that they would file criminal charges against those who "illegally exercised the right to vote in Podgorica" and that the issue of "double voters" and "electoral of tourism" internationalize in cooperation with the European Commission, OSCE and others. They added that the point is not when the voters are registered in the list, but in how many states they exercise "illegal voting rights".
"Organized voter migrations are not a new phenomenon either in Montenegro or in the region, and they deserve condemnation. However, there are still a lot of unknowns regarding these allegations, and that is why it is important that the state prosecutor's office is already checking these allegations", announced the Center for Democratic Transition, an NGO that observed the elections in Podgorica.
During the election day, they appealed to all election participants to refrain from raising tensions at the polling stations and to inform the competent authorities and the public about their findings.
"At the same time, we reiterate that electoral committees have no right to deny the exercise of voting rights to any person who is on the electoral roll".
CDT announced that at the polling station in Elementary School "Novka Ubović" one voter was not allowed to vote because, allegedly, she has the citizenship of Montenegro and Serbia. However, they did not specify who did not allow him to do so.
At least 15 people from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina reported to the Podgorica police during election day that license plates were stolen from their parked cars. The police, according to unofficial information from "Vijesti", assumes that these thefts are a kind of revolt due to the claims of the DPS. Also, on the streets of Podgorica yesterday it was noticeable that there were more cars without license plates than usual.
President of the IC of the Capital City, Vladimir Filipović, told TV "Vijesti" last night that at the beginning of the election day there were "a lot of technical irregularities that were corrected" and that could not significantly affect the regularity of the election.
When asked if they were informed that, as the DPS claims, hundreds of people are voting illegally, Filipović answered in the negative, saying that this issue is exclusively within the competence of the MUP.
The CDT also registered shorter delays with the opening of the polling stations, voting with the absence of some members of the polling boards, mismatch of the cut of the ballot with the number of printed cuts...
Kotor MEC President Anka Perović told the MINA agency that there were no major irregularities during the election day.
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