Forward to Elective Engineering?

Rumors have been circulating in opposition political circles since Monday that the ruling parties, which were left without a majority in Podgorica on Sunday, devised a plan to repeat the voting at the polling station in Doljani, so that the "Forward" Movement, which remained below the threshold, would allegedly win parliamentary status. and thereby increased their chances of remaining in power. That there are not only speculations, it is clear since yesterday, when it was announced that the extract from the voter list from the polling station in that Podgorica settlement was missing.

The Party of European Progress (SEP) of former Prime Minister Duško Marković, which could be its biggest victim in the event of the implementation of that eventual operation, i.e. lose its mandates, announced last night that an attempt to repeat the "legally ended vote" would be an "attack" on them. The SEP stated that they do not want to believe that this could be the intention of the leader of the list of the "Forward" Movement, Vuk Kadić, "a doctor and humanist, who presented himself in the campaign as a European, a legalist and a politician with a civic profile."

Yesterday, Kadić did not respond to the call of "Vijesti", nor to the message in which the newspaper asked him if it is true that the "Forward" Movement will ask for a repeat of the vote in Doljani, and if so - why. Last night, that political entity, reacting to SEP's evaluations, announced that they were accused of electoral engineering by "those who stole in all elections for 30 years".

They said that "justifying the theft of voting materials and other abuses is to be strongly condemned", adding that it is clear that "this has nothing to do with any political option, but with the defense of the legality and legitimacy of the electoral process...".

"... And whatever abuses or irregularities are noticed by the list of the 'Forward' Movement, will be prosecuted in accordance with the law", it was ordered.

The "Forward" movement announced on Monday that it will ask the city election commission to inspect the voting materials, because "there are serious doubts that there were irregularities at certain polling stations...". They won 2.233 votes in the elections, and they needed at least 203 more to pass the census.

Yesterday, when asked whether they had submitted a complaint to the commission, and if so - about what, they told "Vijesti" that they would submit it "within the legal deadline".

According to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament (Article 89), voting at a polling station can be repeated if it is determined that the number of ballots in the ballot box is greater than the number of voters identified in the extract from the voter list as having voted, if it is determined that is the number of ballots greater than the number of control coupons, that the number of ballots is greater than the number of signed stubs and signed coupons, and if it is established that there are two or more control coupons with the same serial number or a serial number that does not belong to that polling station. In that case, the electoral committee is dissolved and a new one is appointed, and the voting is repeated.

In order to determine these irregularities, first one of the political actors who participated in the elections would have to submit a complaint about potential irregularities to the Election Commission of the Capital City, for which they have a deadline of 72 hours from the closing of the polls - that is, until today at 20 p.m. If she accepted the objection, the vote would be repeated. If she did not accept, the political subject could submit a complaint to the State Election Commission (SEC), and in the event that it also rejected it - it could appeal to the Constitutional Court.

An expert on electoral legislation, with whom "Vijesti" spoke, explained that the disappearance of the voter's list is not formally prescribed as one of the reasons for repeating the vote, and that it is more a matter of criminal responsibility and less of the electoral process. However, he notes that without a list it is not possible to determine whether, for example, the number of signatures in that document matches the number of slips, coupons and steaks.

All members of the electoral committee in Doljani signed the record of the work of that body. In those cases, when there are no objections, it is assumed that the elections took place without irregularities.

The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), which observed the elections held on Sunday, registered that the polling station in Doljani (polling station no. 27, in Elementary School "Dr. Dragiša Ivanović") was opened twenty minutes late, because, as they said , the election board could not find the token for the electronic identification device.

The "Forward" movement won 15 votes at that polling station, SEP 11, the European Union 12, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) 77, Uoprek eight, the coalition of the Europe Now Movement (PES) and Democrats 152, the alliance "For the Future of Podgorica" ​​190, list "For a better Podgorica" ​​42, while the Montenegrin European Party got four, the Tenants' Movement got three, and the Podgorica List and the Bosniak Party got one each.

According to the preliminary results of the PES-Democrat coalition elections, 519 citizens voted in Doljani on Sunday, and 953 were registered at that polling station, which means that the turnout was 54,45 percent.

Two interlocutors of "Vijesti" explained that, if the elections in Doljani were repeated, if the turnout was the same or similar, and if the two major governing coalitions (PES-Democrats and "For the Future of Podgorica") would "borrow" the Movement. Forward" missing votes, with the condition that approximately the same number of voters vote for the other actors - the list led by Kadić could enter the Podgorica parliament. In that case, Marković's party would lose one of the two mandates won, and "For the Future of Podgorica" ​​one of 13. This is because, according to Donto's system, those two entities have the lowest quotient.

The interlocutors state that, in the event of an increased turnout of more than 3,5 percent, at several polling stations in the city, Kadić could "take" both mandates from Marković, because the three percent threshold would be higher than the number of votes he won on Sunday. SEP - 2.504. However, one of the interlocutors notes that it is unlikely that the other actors would calmly observe this "engineering", and that they too would probably "fix" the votes.

According to the preliminary election results, DPS won 19 mandates in the city parliament, PES and Democrats 14, "For the future of Podgorica" ​​13, "For a better Podgorica" ​​six, the European Union three, and Preokret and SEP two each.

Bearing in mind that the Assembly of the Capital City has 59 councilors, it is necessary to provide the support of at least 30 of them to constitute the government. The ruling parties from the state level and the opposition DPS can reach that number only through an alliance with the "Za bolju Podgorica" ​​list, behind which the head of state Jakov Milatović stood.

However, with the potential entry of the "Forward" Movement into the City Assembly, and the exit of Marković's party from it, the options for post-election arithmetic would change significantly. In that scenario, the coalition PES-Democrats and the list "For the future of Podgorica" ​​would need a mandate to form a government, while they currently lack three. At the same time, Milatović would not be able to form a government with the DPS and part of the opposition, because they would need two mandates. In the current circumstances, the DPS with the European Union, SEP and Milatović can reach the minimum for constituting the government.

Electoral engineering through the repetition of voting has happened before in Montenegro. In the repeated local elections in Kolašin in 2014, the list "For the European face of Kolašin" won the third mandate at the expense of DPS. At the time, that coalition in the village of Lower Moraca was supported by almost all traditional voters of the former Democratic Front (DF) and the Socialist People's Party (SNP).

Criminal complaint against Globarević due to the disappearance of the voter list

The President of the Election Commission of the Capital City, Vladimir Filipović, submitted a criminal complaint to the Podgorica Security Department against the president of the Doljani election committee, Petar Globarević, due to the disappearance of the voter list.

Filipović confirmed this to "Vijesta" yesterday, saying that Globarević did not submit an extract from the voter's list during the debt settlement.

"Vijesti" contacted Globarević yesterday, but he did not want to speak to the media, saying that he was leaving the decision on all further actions to the commission.

Note: In the original version of the text, it was written that the "Forward" Movement list would "take" two mandates from the SEP in case of an increase in turnout of about twenty percent. We apologize for the error.