Open electoral lists represent a fundamental reform that gives each voter's vote greater weight, giving them the opportunity to choose not only a party, but also individuals, said President Jakov Milatović.
Today, at the Music Center of Montenegro in Podgorica, he organized a panel discussion: "Open electoral lists - Let's return the power to the citizens."
Milatović recalled that in December last year he submitted an initiative to reform the electoral system through the introduction of open electoral lists.
"The introduction of open lists can also lead to an increase in turnout. I do not want citizens to feel powerless and discouraged. I want them to know that their power is not symbolic, but essential. Democracy is not just the right to vote every four years, but a process that requires constant vigilance and commitment. The experiences of other countries that have introduced open lists can serve as an open guide, but our solutions must be our own, adapted to our specificities," he said.
The President's Office will submit a bill if it is not prepared by the committee.
Milatović pointed out that, if the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform does not prepare a law, his cabinet will submit a proposal.
Čarapić: Call a referendum, PES supports open lists
The first panel was attended by: Dean of the Faculty of Government and European Studies Đorđije Blažić, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Montenegro Zlatko Vujović, Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform Vasilije Čarapić (PES), and member of the same committee Ana Novaković Đurović (URA).
Dragan Koprivica, executive director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) and moderator of the event, asked all panelists whether they were in favor of introducing open lists.
"This is often viewed through two extremes - one is that by introducing open lists we will solve all the problems, and the other is NGOs who want to steal politics from the parties," he said.
Čarapić said that PES supports open lists and that they are part of that party's program.
He says he is glad that "one of the founders of our movement is one of the organizers of this panel."
"I believe that in the last term, there was no will to introduce them, and neither in the one before it. Also, in this term, there is no will at the level of consensus, and I believe there will be none in the next one either. We must find a way that will be acceptable. We believe that in this sense, power should be returned to the citizens and a referendum should be called. If the citizens say they are in favor, the parties have nowhere to go. If they say they are not, the parties can continue to be the masters of the universe," he said.
Koprivica noted that every referendum requires a campaign and asked, if it were to be called, whether PES would be clearly involved in the campaign for its introduction.
Čarapić responded that politicians are also citizens, and that there are those among them who will use their public recognition to help the campaign for or against.
"We, as PES, see the Luxembourg model as the best. We need to see whether one or more electoral units, how many preferential votes, whether to allow citizens to vote for candidates from multiple lists...", he said.
Čarapić said that from mid-April, he will receive the ODIHR's opinion on all laws related to electoral reform: "In that sense, I call on the opposition to overcome the boycott, at least on that issue."
Ana Novaković Đurović said that she advocates for open lists.
"We are not among the parties that gave up on it after 2020. There has been a lot of talk about the concept of open lists, but still, there has been a lot of talk and little action. As a politician, I am very much in favor of it and I do not believe that it would lead to a 'male' parliament."
She said that they must not be guided by populism.
"When you go into reform, in addition to input and analysis, trends need to be monitored. One trend we would like is for trust in parties to be greater."
He believes that open lists will not solve the problem by themselves, saying that the State Election Commission and municipal commissions are still not professionalized.
"Regarding the model, in principle I really think that regional experiences are valuable. Each country makes decisions based on its own goal. Montenegro is not a country where gender equality has been achieved. Bearing that in mind, as a legislator, I would still opt for some kind of quota," she pointed out.
Đorđije Blažić recalled that until 2010, the previous legal system was obliged to harmonize with the 2007 Constitution.
"The question of whether we are in favor of open lists is a question of whether we are in favor of constitutional provisions. According to the Constitution, no authority can be recognized that does not stem from the free will of citizens resulting from free elections."
Vujović said that preferential voting works better in some countries, worse in others.
"I advocate that it never happens that an MP does not take the floor in the Assembly. And this happens because it does not depend on the citizens whether they will be in the Assembly, but on the party leaders. We have had complaints from women's NGOs that preferential voting will reduce the number of women, and the example of BiH is cited. The problem there is that the electoral units are small. I think Kosovo has the best system. Kosovo and BiH did not create the system themselves, but the international factor influenced it. In Kosovo - it is as if they learned from the shortcomings in BiH. In Kosovo, there is a high degree of proportionality," he said.
It indicates that Kosovo had five preferential votes, since the last elections it has had ten.
From the largest party, Self-Determination, all women were elected with a preferential quota and there was no need to adjust the gender quota. The same situation is with the largest minority list, Srpska List, he added.
Vujović assessed that the introduction of preferential votes does not jeopardize existing good things, such as the entry of representatives of smaller nations into the Parliament.
What is the situation in the region?
Panelists in the second discussion were Judge of the Supreme Court of Kosovo and former President of the Central Election Commission of Kosovo Valdete Daka, President of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina Irena Hadžiabdić, and Associate Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb Dario Čepo.
Valdete Daka explained that voting is done by first circling the party, and then up to 10 numbers representing candidates from that party's list.
Čepo explained that the territory of Croatia is divided into 10 electoral units, one each for Croats abroad and national minorities.
"We have cases where candidates have a falling out with the leader, so he puts them in last place, but they still manage to get in through charisma. Ten, fifteen percent of elected MPs are those who 'jumped the blockade'."
Daka pointed out that in the beginning, each candidate ran their own campaign somewhere, but that they mostly financed them themselves.
Later, a decision was made that individual candidate posters would not exist.
"When you are an MP elected by the people's vote, your responsibility is greater. When you are an MP elected by the leader's decision, your responsibility is to him, not to the citizens," she pointed out.
Irena Hadžiabdić assessed that their system has shortcomings, but also advantages.
"We had a situation where they asked us to include a nickname or title among the candidates' names," she added.
She pointed out that candidates are becoming competitors to each other and vote buying is occurring, and that they have recently introduced professional polling stations that are not allowed to include party representatives.
Daka added that it is mandatory for 30 percent of women to be on the list, as well as in parliament.
"In the beginning it was difficult because the parties held on to the idea that they couldn't find that many women, etc. But over time it turned out that almost all the women who entered parliament entered with their votes. The moment women were given the opportunity to express themselves and talk about the problems they had, they started to get votes," she explained.
When it comes to smaller peoples, she explained that out of the 20 places intended for them, 10 are reserved for Serbs, and 10 for other minorities - Bosniaks, Turks, Gorani...
Hadžiabdić said that they started with two percent of women in parliament in 1996, and that after that it was decided to introduce quotas.
"Over time, we have not remained at that number. Semi-open lists have been introduced. The percentage of women is around 17 percent, and at the local level around 22 percent," she pointed out.
Čepo said that in local elections in a small town in Dalmatia, he saw that only one woman was a candidate.
When it comes to minorities, he said that three seats belong to the Serbian minority, one each to the Hungarian and Italian, one to representatives of peoples from the former Yugoslavia, one to peoples "from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire," and one is shared by the Czech and Slovak minorities.
He added that members of minority groups often do not vote for minority candidates.
Responding to the question of whether open lists are an improvement over closed lists, Hadžiabdić said that it was the only step forward they had through 24 electoral reforms.
When asked whether the situation in Šavnik and Kotor, where the elections could not be completed, could be repeated in their countries, Daka said that in their MECs, there is always an odd number, and that the municipal commission is subordinate to the central one.
Hadžiabdić recalled that Mostar did not hold elections from 2008 to 2020, and that one person sued the state because of that.
Čepo said that initially there were cases where parties discouraged members from using preferential voting.
From the audience, civic activist Božidar Vujičić, an advocate of open lists, took the floor.
He said that open lists existed in Montenegro from 1905 to 1990 and that the right to vote could be used or not used, not used more or less.
Civic activist Dževdet Pepić stated that all of Montenegro's political problems stem from cronyism - from Momir (Bulatović) and Branko (Kostić), through Milo (Đukanović) and Momir, and this latest one (alluding to Milatović and Prime Minister Milojko Spajić), but that open lists would help solve that problem.
He added that he was glad to have supported Milatović in the presidential elections, but not so much because of him as because of the opposing candidate (Đukanović).
The diaspora has the right to vote
All three panelists said that the diaspora has the right to vote.
Hadžiabdić pointed out that they must register, but that there were irregularities in having 20 voters register at a bus station in Austria, and that they are now asking for additional evidence - if they are at work or receiving treatment, they must send a document.
"Initially, ballots were sent by mail, and today polling stations are being opened in DKPs, and there is a problem of ensuring that the electoral committee has an equal ratio of men and women, and that all people are represented, so citizens residing in those countries register. When it comes to refugees from the war, the 1991 electoral register was chosen as evidence."
Čepo said that Croats outside Croatia are not called diaspora, because of the Croats in BiH who are constitutive, but that they vote in a separate unit.
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