The fact that there are many more voters in Montenegro than in the census of registered adult Montenegrin citizens and those who also have foreign citizenship means that the Statistics Administration (MONSTAT) did not enumerate all citizens living abroad (USA, Western Europe, Serbia ...) and have the right to vote in Montenegro. However, this does not change the fact that there are significantly more people than there should be in the voter list, and they should be "deleted" from there, but only in a legal procedure.
Thus, an immigration law expert who wished to remain anonymous explained to "Vijesti" the huge discrepancy between the number of voters and adult citizens, that is, the fact that the former are almost 90 more. This was shown by a comparison of the voter list for the parliamentary elections held in June 2023 and the data on the number of adult citizens in the census held at the end of that year, which MONSTAT submitted to "Vijesti" on Tuesday.
In the census, the final results of which were presented last week, data was collected from Montenegrin citizens who have a place of residence or stay in Montenegro, regardless of whether they are temporarily outside it, and foreigners who have an approved permanent or temporary residence in Montenegro, as well as foreigners for whom it is their "usual place of residence".
Yesterday, MONSTAT published data on enumerated citizens living abroad, and announced that they "do not refer to the emigrant/diaspora contingent, but represent only one part of it that was present during the census or had a household member present who provided the data for absent household members".
On the other hand, the voter list includes Montenegrin citizens who have the right to vote, and those who have reached the age of 18 and have resided in Montenegro for at least two years have the right to vote.
There were 541.670 voters in the voter list (not counting 798 voters registered at separate polling stations UIKS - I, UIKS - II and UIKS - III), while 451.942 adult Montenegrin citizens and those who also have the citizenship of another country were registered on the list.
The interlocutor of "Vijesti" said that the disproportionality in the number of voters and adult citizens can only be "ironed out" in a legal way and in compliance with international standards, and that this procedure can last for years.
He claims that according to his research and data from the registers of residence and Montenegrin citizens, there should be between 70 thousand and 90 thousand fewer voters in the voter list. That is - between 450 thousand and 470 thousand in total.
An official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) announced in May 2021 that there were 780.174 Montenegrin citizens in the register of citizens, and 676.923 persons in the register of residence, i.e. that 102.251 citizens do not have a residence in Montenegro.
The expert interviewed by "Vijesti" said that when "cleaning" the list, the focus should be on those who have another citizenship in addition to Montenegrin. He explains that, if those persons acquired another citizenship illegally (after the declaration of independence of Montenegro on June 3, 2006), by force of law they should lose their Montenegrin, and therefore voting rights, and disappear from the voter list.
The interlocutor stated that it is complicated to find out whether the second citizenship was obtained illegally, because it is unlikely that these other countries will provide this information.
However, he said that there are other models to determine whether a Montenegrin citizen, regardless of whether he has dual citizenship, really lives in Montenegro.
"There is a possibility of matching the databases that exist with us. In European statistics there is a term 'signs of life'. By matching the appropriate databases - those of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Tax Administration, the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, the register of state border crossings... it would be possible to determine whether these persons show 'signs of life', that is, whether they really live in Montenegro", he said. expert.
When it comes to Montenegrin citizens who live abroad and do not have another citizenship, the interlocutor said that despite the fact that they are not in the country, their "deletion" from the residence register would be very problematic. That idea was advocated by some political actors.
"Because those people, if they do not have the right to vote in another country, would lose that constitutional right in Montenegro... This issue must be resolved in a legal procedure, so that we do not end up in a situation where it is done over the knee, where the police enumerate citizens, goes out on the field, etc. Because that could lead to the fact that someone's right to vote and other rights derived from residence depend on the policeman's assessment," he warned.
However, the interlocutor noted that in the case of that category of citizens, there is an ethical dimension, in the sense of whether it is okay for those who do not live in Montenegro to decide on opportunities in it. He stated that perhaps these people should be invited not to vote in their homeland.
"That they should not take the fate of Montenegro into their own hands, and that they leave the issue to the citizens, Montenegrin citizens who really live in Montenegro and who have tied their lives and destiny to it," he said.
Analyzing the voter list and MONSTAT data, it can be seen that in 24 out of 25 municipalities there are more voters than adult citizens. The only municipality where this is not the case is Danilovgrad, where there are 1.090 more adult citizens than voters (14.266 versus 13.176).
Lawyer and former Minister of Internal Affairs Sergej Sekulović told "Vijesta" that the Law on Residence and Stay Registers should be amended or a new one should be adopted. He said that the basic idea around which there must be a consensus, and in accordance with the constitutional provisions, is that citizens for whom Montenegro, or one of its municipalities, is the center of life activities have the right to vote.
"This does not mean a mechanistic connection to the fact that someone is temporarily absent, because deletion from the register of residence does not only result in the loss of voting rights, but also has other important consequences, such as the cancellation of an ID card, the inability to register a vehicle, etc. So, one has to be careful," he underlined.
Sekulović announced that those citizens who obtained the citizenship of another country, who live and vote in it, have indisputably tied the center of life activities outside Montenegro. As, according to him, residence can only be one, and it is related to citizenship, it is necessary, he said, to determine this through field checks, database checks, but also enable people in the diaspora to be able to prove their status in a way that will to be the least burdensome to them.
"I am primarily referring to the diplomatic-consular network, the use of IT capabilities, etc. Of course, the deadlines must not be short and the possibility must be left for subsequent correction of errors. The main goal must be the up-to-dateness of the records, of which the one related to residence is fundamental for designing public policies. A related goal is to create, for the first time, a database of our emigrants who are still connected to Montenegro. If we succeed in this, at least in a percentage above 90 percent, it would be a great success for Montenegro," Sekulović assessed, adding that any other approach that would be motivated by discrimination and political calculations would be destructive.
The biggest discrepancy between the number of voters and adult citizens is in Podgorica, where there are 15.319 more voters (143.841 versus 128.522), in Bar there are 9.884 more (39.875 versus 29.991), and in Bijelo Polje 9.422 more (39.368 versus 29.946).
The smallest difference in the number of voters and adult citizens is in Šavnik, where the former are 417 more (1.727 vs. 1.310), in Plužine there are 491 more (2.336 vs. 1.845), in Žabljak 619 (3.003 vs. 2.384), in Kolašin 688 (6.044 vs. 5.356), in Andrijevica 775 (3.845 against 3.070), and in Zeta 837 (12.554 against 11.717).
Slovenia lost in Strasbourg due to "deletion" from the register
Speaking about the idea of "deleting" Montenegrin citizens from the register of residence, the expert on immigration law recalled that in the early 25s, after the declaration of independence, Slovenia "deleted" from the register of people with permanent residence over XNUMX thousand persons whose applications for citizenship or they did not surrender it, and they had the citizenship of Yugoslavia.
He stated that these people sued Slovenia at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and won.
"Slovenia had to register those people again, and even pay them compensation".
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