After the President of the Municipality of Kotor Vladimir Jokić and the holder of the list of Democrats in the local elections withdrew his election appeals before the Constitutional Court, the proceedings were returned to the Municipal Election Commission (MEC), which should make a decision on repeating the elections at two polling stations.
This was unofficially told to "Vijesti" by two lawyers, who explain that the last decision of the State Election Commission (SEC), which ordered the MEC to repeat the elections at the Mirac polling station and the House of Culture in Prčanje, remains in force.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the session of the MEC was scheduled for yesterday, but was postponed, after Jokić's announcement that he would withdraw the appeals.
Local elections were held in Kotor on September 29, but due to objections regarding two polling stations, the final results have not yet been announced. Due to the stalemate in the MEC, as well as in the Constitutional Court, it has not yet been decided whether the elections at those polling stations will be repeated.
Jokić withdrew his appeals to the Constitutional Court yesterday, as he announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
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The "Vijesti" source said that the MEC is now expected to make a decision, that is, that it will have a majority for the decision to repeat the elections at two polling stations.
If such a decision is made, the law stipulates that elections must be held within seven days at the latest. If the MEC were to meet and decide today, the elections at two polling stations must be repeated no later than next Friday.
However, if the result of the vote is still a draw, Kotor is threatened with the "Savnica scenario". In Šavnik, the elections cannot be completed for two years because the local commission cannot make a decision on repeating the elections at two polling stations. The first man of Kotor, whose mandate expired on Wednesday, announced several times that he would not allow the "Savnica scenario".
There is one mandate at stake, that is, the possibility that it will be won by DPS and lost by the Democrats-PES coalition.
Jokić explained in the notice of appeal withdrawal that he submitted to the Constitutional Court yesterday that he decided to withdraw the appeal and end the proceedings before the Constitutional Court, so that the process would return to the election commissions and come to an end.
"In a country where the court that is responsible for the protection of constitutionality fails to fulfill its obligation and make a decision, it degrades the legal system and does not protect the rights of the individual, nor the society as a whole by not allowing the electoral process to end and the formation of government based on freely expressed the will of the citizens in the elections, the individual and the participant in the electoral process, has no choice but to try to protect the constitution and the rights of the citizens themselves", stated Jokić.
On October 11, he submitted two appeals to the Constitutional Court, which were considered on October 24. The Constitutional Court, however, did not make a decision, because the result of the vote was 3:3. The Constitutional Court clarified in a statement that three judges took the position that they have the authority to examine the election dispute in essence, while three of them considered that the election procedure is strictly formal and that they should only examine procedural irregularities in the work of the competent election commission.
Judges Momirka Tešić and Snežana Armenko, who is also the president of the Constitutional Court, as well as judge Faruk Resulbegović, were in favor of examining the essence of the election dispute, that is, accepting Jokić's appeals. Judges Desanka Lopičić and Dragana Đuranović, as well as judge Budimir Šćepanović, were against it. The Constitutional Court currently has six judges, out of the seven prescribed by law, because Judge Milorad Gogić became eligible for retirement at the end of May, and the Assembly has not yet elected his deputy.
In his appeals, Jokić claimed that the SEC had no right to reject his objections without discussion, because in the Montenegrin legal system there is no longer an institute of rejection in the administrative procedure, but that he had to consider the essence of the objection, and only then make a decision.
The complaints also claimed that the fact that the vote on the objection of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) at the MEC session was 8:8 does not mean that the objection was not decided, as claimed by the president of the MEC, but that the objection did not receive the necessary majority for adoption and was not adopted, i.e. that he was rejected.
Also, he stated in the appeals that the Constitutional Court must go into the merits of the problem, i.e. it must determine whether failures in the work of the polling boards require repeating voting at two polling stations, as well as that the lack of two coupons at the polling station in Prčanje is not a reason for repeating the election. , because it does not affect the result.
He also believes that the wrongly stamped back of the ballot paper in Mirac is not a reason for repeating the election, with additional confirmation that earlier the MEC unanimously decided upon his objection that it was not even a reason to declare the ballot invalid.
According to the preliminary results of the elections in Kotor held on September 29, 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 Alliance two, and the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) and Kotor movement for mandate. By repeating the elections in two polling stations, DPS can "seize" the mandate from PES and the Democrats.
Jokić said at the press conference on Wednesday that he knows that the Constitutional Court SEC and the MEC have been misused.
"We will go to the elections in Prčanje and Mirac and solve this in that way. As someone who had the privilege of leading the city, I feel an obligation to the city and the list that I had the honor to lead. That's why I decided to withdraw my complaints to the US and call on all actors to go to those elections and to confirm the defeat of the DPS and to resolve this in that way," said Jokić.
"The Constitutional Court failed to protect the right to vote"
In his notification to the Constitutional Court, Jokić stated that by acting in his case, the Constitutional Court failed to fulfill its obligation to protect voting rights and the legality of the electoral process.
"I leave it to the judges of the Constitutional Court to think whether their actions, in which they were not qualified to make a decision in accordance with the Constitution, conventions and laws, is worthy of a judge of the highest court in the country," said Jokić.
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