Jokić submitted two appeals to the Constitutional Court

Vladimir Jokić, the leader of the coalition of Democrats and the Europe Now Movement (PES) in the recent elections in Kotor, submitted two appeals to the Constitutional Court yesterday regarding the election process in that city - "Vijesti" has learned unofficially.

According to "Vijesti" information, one complaint relates to election events in Mirac polling station, and the other to those in connection with a polling station in Prčanje.

On Monday, the State Election Commission (SEC) ordered Kotor to repeat the voting in those two settlements. At the session held at the end of last week, the local commission did not make a decision on repeating the election, because eight of its members supported the annulment of the vote, while eight were against it. At least nine "hands" are needed to make a decision.

In the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament (Article 109) it is written that the complaint is considered adopted if the local committee does not act on it within 24 hours of receipt. However, in order for the elections to be repeated, the Kotor commission should, in addition to canceling the vote, also make a decision on calling the election, which it did not do.

Before the Constitutional Court, Jokić is reviewing the "deadlock" in the local commission, that is, as he told "Vijesta" last week - he wants to prove that the ratio of eight to eight is not enough to make any decision.

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) requested to re-vote at one polling station (Dom kulture) in Prčanje because there were two more ballots in the ballot box (271 in total) than the number of control coupons (269). On the other hand, the Democrats-PES coalition demanded that the vote in Mirac be annulled because the stamp on the ballots was in the wrong place.

"Vijesti" wrote that, if the elections in Prčanje were repeated, the DPS could "steal" one mandate from the Democrats-PES coalition.

According to the preliminary results of the elections held on September 29, DPS and the coalition PES-Democrats won ten mandates each, the alliance "For the Future of Kotor", the Grbljanska Lista and the Democratic Alternative three each, the European Union two, and the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) and the Kotor Movement per mandate.

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 Davor Kumburović, whose Democratic Alternative has three mandates, returns, then they would be within reach of forming a government.

In 2014, the Constitutional Court assessed that the objection is accepted when it is "unresolved"

It will not be the first time that the Constitutional Court deals with the "deadlock" in election commissions. In 2014, that institution assessed that in such a situation, the objection is considered adopted.

In 2014, the Constitutional Court accepted the appeal of the group of voters "Shule i Mikan with a citizen for Kolašin" and annulled the decision of the SEC, which stipulated that the elections at the polling station Đuđevina, near Kolašin, would not be organized a third time. The SEC made the first decision deciding on the objection of the electoral list "For the European face of Kolašin". From that coalition, they argued that the fact that an equal number of MEC members voted both for and against the objection of the "Šule i Mikan" list means that it was rejected, because it does not have the necessary majority, and not that the commission cannot make a decision, as "Shule and Mikan" claimed. That group of voters requested a repeat of the elections in Đudjevina because one person voted with an old ID card.

Explaining the decision according to which the appeal of the "Shule i Mikan" list was accepted, the Constitutional Court stated that the SEC "arbitrarily interpreted Article 21 of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament".

"From the provision of Article 21 of the Law, it unequivocally follows that the bodies for the implementation of elections decide by the majority of votes of their (all) members, i.e. that the same numerical majority (one more vote) is required for both the adoption and rejection of any objection or decision of those bodies, and not that the objection is considered rejected simply because there was no majority for its adoption, as the SEC arbitrarily interprets it," the Constitutional Court stated.

According to the assessment of that institution, the provision of Article 109 paragraph 3 of the mentioned law is relevant for the election dispute in this particular case, from which it follows that "the objection is considered adopted if the competent election commission does not issue a decision on the objection within the legal deadline of 24 hours".