The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which won ten mandates in the Kotor parliament four days ago, could "steal" one from the coalition of Democrats and the Europe Now Movement (PES) next week, as they will vote again at the polling station in Purring.
Yesterday, the Kotor Election Commission accepted the objection of the DPS to vote again at one polling station (Dom kulture) in that settlement, because there were two more ballots in the ballot box (271 in total) than the number of control coupons (269).
Last year, the Constitutional Court rejected three appeals of this type after the parliamentary elections held in June, judging that such minor inconsistencies in the voting materials could not significantly affect the outcome of the elections.
However, election commissions, local and state, cannot appreciate this, regardless of the fact that the adoption of such objections can serve as a reason for electoral engineering by the parties. The commissions are responsible for determining the existence of reasons for repeating the vote.
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 box is greater than the number of voters identified in the extract from the voter list as having voted, if it is determined that the number of ballots greater than the number of 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.
Eight members of the election commission voted yesterday to accept the DPS complaint, while seven voted against it. The session was not attended by a member of the committee representing the "For the Future of Kotor" list.
According to the preliminary results of the elections in Kotor, DPS and the coalition PES-Democrats won ten mandates each, the alliance "For the Future of Kotor", Grbljanska Lista and Democratic Alternative three each, the European Union two, and the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) and the Kotor Movement each one mandate .
At the polling station in the House of Culture in Prčanje, 266 voters voted (495 were registered), of which DPS received 98 votes, PES and Democrats 58, "For the Future of Kotor" 29, Grbljanska List four, Democratic Alternative 24, European Union 14 , HGI 19 and Kotorski pokret 3.
The rest of the votes went to lists that did not pass the census - the coalition of the Socialist People's Party and the Democratic Serbian Party (13), the list "Guardians of the City" (two), and the Montenegrin Civic Action and the list "Za Kotor" (one each).
Voting will take place again in Prčanje on Tuesday. According to Donto's system, DPS lacks 18 votes to win the eleventh mandate, so the Democrats-PES coalition will lose one.
The Kotor Parliament has 33 council seats, which means that at least 17 votes are needed to form a government.
The Democrats-PES coalition and the "For the Future of Kotor" list have 13 mandates, which means they lack four. On the other hand, the DPS with its traditional partners - the European Union consisting of the Social Democrats, the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and Citizens, and the HGI - has 13 mandates. If the "runaway" member is returned to them Davor Kumburović, whose Democratic Alternative has three mandates, then they would be within reach of forming a government.
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