Are the people of Šavnica going to the polls twice more? Electoral reform has not solved the agony in the small town in the north

Although the government and the opposition have agreed that all local elections will be held on June 13, 2027, part of the ruling majority does not believe that this has definitively resolved the case of Šavnik, where elections have been going on for almost three years. They do not rule out the possibility that the issue of ending voting in that town will be resolved through amendments to the Law on the Voters' Register, which are in the Parliament and will not be withdrawn from it until further notice, "Vijesti" has learned unofficially.

A source from one of the ruling parties said that the proposed changes will certainly be in the process by the end of August, when the ruling majority expects to discuss it with the state and Šavnik opposition, and then decide what to do with the proposed solutions. He states that the recently amended Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives, which agreed to hold local elections on one day, left room for the Šavnik issue to be addressed through changes to the regulations on the voter register.

According to the amended law, if elections have not been completed in a municipality by the time all local elections have been called, they will be called in that self-government as well, by decision.

The amendments stipulate that the Central Election Commission, which will replace the State Election Commission, will call general local elections 90 days before the date of their holding, which means that the final deadline for the completion of the Šavnik elections is March 15, 2027. In other words, the ruling majority has a little over a year and a half to bring them to a close.

A source for "Vijesti" from the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) said that the party did not discuss the regulation on the voter list, stating that it believes that the Šavnik issue has been resolved in principle with the agreement on elections in one day. He added that the government and the opposition should discuss the Law on the Voter List at the parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reform, in order to ensure that situations like the one in Šavnik do not repeat themselves.

Amendments to the law were proposed by a section of the ruling parties, led by the Democrats, in mid-May, but MPs did not vote on them. The amendments stipulate that "election tourists" from Šavnica, who deregistered their residence in that municipality after the elections that began in 2022, will not be able to participate in a possible repeat vote at two polling stations, regardless of whether they are on the voter list.

The opposition had previously called for the complete withdrawal of this proposal, stating that it was "unconstitutional", and that the Law on the Voters' Register should be discussed by the Electoral Reform Committee.

Holder of the list "For the future of Šavnik" Gavrilo Cerović, told "Vijesti" that amendments to the Law on the Voters' Register are the solution to the crisis in the town. He claims that the elections that began in 2022 must be completed so that those planned for 2027 can be held.

He believes that the amendments to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives do not concern the Šavnik elections.

"So, this is for elections where they took place, where there is a current government, and in Šavnik the elections have not been completed. So, this cannot apply to Šavnik, where the elections must be completed. The 2022 elections are still ongoing here...", Cerović announced, saying that the "new law" can only be applied after the 2022 elections are completed, with the help of amendments to the Law on the Voters' Register.

They began on October 23, 2022, when they were held in 13 more municipalities, but were not completed because members of the polling stations from the opposition coalition "For the Future of Šavnik", led by the former Democratic Front, did not allow some of the newly registered voters to vote, because, they claim, they were copied to support the DPS.

At two polling stations, in the Municipality building and in the village of Kruševice, where 541 voters are eligible to vote, voting took place nine times, the last time on December 18, 2022, when the elections were again interrupted, after which the Municipal Election Commission there could not agree on repeating them.

So far, dozens of people have been prosecuted before judicial authorities for events related to the elections in Šavnik, which included numerous incidents, including physical clashes.

The Šavnik opposition, which is part of the state government's constituents, ended its months-long blockade of the Šavnik-Žabljak road in mid-June, after a meeting with representatives of the parliamentary majority, where it was agreed that the ruling majority would take on the responsibility of resolving the electoral crisis in that municipality.

They blocked the road for re-election. Jugoslav Jakić (DPS) for mayor and the fact that the elections in that municipality have not been completed.

With the proposed amendments to the Law on Voters' Register, the procedure for re-elections at polling stations where the election results were annulled will be regulated by the new Article 20a of the Law, according to which only voters registered in the extract from the closed voter register for that polling station may vote.

"The exception is voters who, from the day the voter list was closed until the day the repeat elections were held, deregistered their residence in the municipality where the council elections are being held, or the competent state administration body issued a final decision on deregistering their residence in that municipality," the proposal states.

It is also stated that in the event that voters deregister their residence in the municipality where local elections are held, the competent state administration body shall submit a list of such persons to the polling station committee for that polling station no later than 24 hours before the day of the repeat elections.

The same legal solution was submitted by Democratic MPs in late 2023, but they withdrew it from the procedure in early March 2024 after some opposition parties (one of which is now the ruling party) objected, stating that the proposal was submitted without dialogue with them, and with the intention of the parliamentary majority "to destroy the agreement on the principles on which the Committee was formed."

Amendments to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives stipulate that the Central Election Commission, which will replace the State Election Commission, will call general local elections 90 days before the date of their holding, which means that the final deadline for the completion of the local elections is March 15, 2027. In other words, the ruling majority has a little over a year and a half to bring them to a close.