Democrats propose amendments to the Law on Voters' List: The goal is to unblock the electoral process in Šavnik

The Democratic Parliamentary Group announced that it will submit the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Voters' Register to the parliamentary procedure, with the aim of unblocking the election process in Šavnik.

"The draft law provides normative assumptions that only voters who have the right to vote on the day of the election, in accordance with applicable regulations, can vote in the repeat elections for the election of councilors. That is, voters who, from the day of the closing of the voter list until the day of the repeat elections, have deregistered their residence in the municipality in which the elections for councilors are being held, or who have been issued a final decision by the competent state administration body to deregister their residence in that municipality during the aforementioned period, cannot vote in the repeat elections for the election of councilors," the statement reads.

This, they said, prevents the practice of fictitious registration of residence for the purpose of election engineering, which was "particularly evident" in Šavnik and resulted in a multi-year blockade of the local election process.

"The proposal will be submitted as an urgent procedure, bearing in mind that even after more than two years, the elections in Šavnik have not been completed, and that the councilors of the Šavnik Municipal Assembly, elected in the elections on May 27, 2018, continue to serve as councilors for two years and six months after the expiration of the four-year mandate of the Šavnik Municipal Assembly," say the Democrats.

They said that with this legal solution they want to contribute to full respect for the electoral will of citizens and preserve the integrity of the electoral system, all with the aim of ensuring the legal implementation of the electoral process in repeat elections, i.e. that only voters who have the right to vote in the municipality in which the elections are being held vote in those elections.

"We call on all parliamentary groups to support this proposal and thus demonstrate their willingness to finally conduct elections in this municipality in a legal manner," the statement reads.