The Montenegrin electoral system does not have full constitutional and judicial protection of voting rights, and the Constitutional Court in the case of Šavnik does not have the possibility to initiate proceedings to annul the electoral process in that municipality on its own initiative, said the President of the State Election Commission (SEC), Nikola Mugoša, today.
He was heard today by the Constitutional Committee, as one of the candidates for judge of the Constitutional Court.
He was asked by Europe Now Movement (PES) MP Darko Dragović what possible solutions are in electoral legislation to avoid a repeat of Šavnik, where elections have not been completed for three years, and how the Constitutional Court can react in that case.
Mugoša reminded that the election process has not been completed to this day, even though the SEC regularly holds sessions and orders the Municipal Election Commission (MEC) in Šavnik to re-run the elections at two polling stations.
Mugoša pointed out legal obstacles – the SEC cannot take over the jurisdiction of the MEC when it comes to local elections.
"On the other hand, in order to file an election complaint with the Constitutional Court, it is necessary for the SEC to issue a decision rejecting or dismissing the complaint," Mugoša said.
He added that this situation is extreme because the elections began three years ago, every Sunday the SEC orders the MEC to complete the process, and demographic changes have also occurred in three years.
"Now someone who was close to the age of majority before the elections in Šavnik would not be able to exercise their right in the event of a repeat election because the voter list was closed on the eve of the elections. If the MEC had acted according to the SEC's decision, and if the elections had been repeated on election day in Nikšić, we would have a paradoxical situation where citizens are on two voter lists in two municipalities and are exercising their right to vote," Mugoša said.
According to him, elections that are held every three years cannot be fair and democratic, and on the other hand, the citizens of Šavnik have not been given the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.
"The only way to complete this process is to complete the elections at two polling stations," Mugoša said.
The elections in Šavnik began on October 23, 2022, when they were held in 13 more municipalities, but have not yet ended 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 Kruševica, where 541 voters have the right to vote, voting was held on nine occasions, the last time on December 18, 2022, when the elections were interrupted again, after which the Municipal Election Commission (MEC) there could not arrangements to repeat them.
Mugoša, speaking about the state of the judiciary, pointed to the European standard that requires legally binding verdicts.
"In general, we cannot be satisfied, the standard that is imposed, especially in the EU integration process, is that legally binding court decisions are needed, if they are not there, then all prosecutorial investigations and everything that is the subject of the work of the authorities that initiated certain procedures cannot have a satisfactory legal epilogue," he said, responding to a question from PES MP Vladimir Bakrač.
In this sense, as he added, in addition to legal knowledge, a certain integrity is needed that cannot be learned at a conference or seminar; it has to be possessed and built.
According to him, the Constitutional Court, as the most interesting, has in the past faced certain criticisms related to the quality of its work.
"Progress has been made recently, both in constitutional appeals and cases related to the review of constitutionality, and it seems to me that the ambition is to resolve all constitutional appeals from the past three years by the end of the year," Mugoša said. He added that it is also necessary to improve the dynamics of the work of the courts, so that citizens can expect justice within a reasonable time.
MP GP URA Zoran Mikić asked Mugoša what his experience was in cooperating with the Constitutional Court and whether there was an opportunity to act more efficiently in some cases, as well as how he viewed the postponement of local elections in the previous parliamentary term.
"We have also now, by consensus, postponed all elections until 2027," he reminded.
He asked Mugoša whether they should have enacted a lex specialis instead of amending the existing Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives because some municipal presidents "don't know what they will do when their mandate expires."
Mugoša said that he has been continuously monitoring the work of the Constitutional Court for ten years and that the practice is diverse.
He said that one of the main complaints in the relationship with the SEC was that it often happened that the SEC only received notification of what was a constitutional complaint, that is, that the SEC's decision was being overturned, without stating the reasons for it.
"Then the SEC was in a dilemma about how to proceed," he said, adding that he constantly emphasizes "urgency" and "reasoning" in the Constitutional Court's decisions.
He pointed to two "most extreme examples" related to the Javljen polling station in Nikšić and Doljane in Podgorica, where similar situations existed (the voter list was missing, as part of the voting materials), and the Constitutional Court made two different decisions - in one that this was a reason for repeating the elections, and in the other that it was not a reason for repeating the elections.
Responding to Mikić's second question, he said that all situations when it comes to extending a mandate without elections are controversial, but in a situation where there is consensus between both the government and the opposition, it is easier to reach a solution, or rather, the sustainability of the situation.
"It must also be ensured that the goal sought to be achieved is justified, that is, that it is necessary in a democratic society," he said.
He recalled that one of the demands of international partners is that there be political stability and that fragmented local elections contributed to political tension, where Montenegro was continuously involved in electoral processes.
Mugoša is the current president of the State Election Commission, which, in accordance with the amendments to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives, adopted this summer, will be abolished, or transformed into the Central Election Commission (CEC). Mugoša graduated from the Faculty of Law, and holds a master's and doctorate degrees on topics related to the electoral systems of Montenegro and the EU.
His biography, published on the SEC website, states that he was a teaching associate at the University of Montenegro and a legal advisor at the SEC for six years. He is the author of several scientific papers, articles and texts on the topic of elections and a participant in several observation missions.
Since 2025, he has been an alumni of the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department, intended for the exchange of experiences of prominent professionals and leaders from various fields of public life.
Ćupić: The Constitutional Court should initiate disputes itself
University of Montenegro professor Danilo Ćupić said that the Constitutional Court should be given the opportunity to initiate a constitutional dispute itself, despite fears of prejudice.
Responding to a question from the President of the Constitutional Committee, Jelena Božović, whether Constitutional Court judges should only decide when an initiative is submitted or sometimes they should react themselves, he said that the question arises whether the Constitutional Court "when it decides to review something, it already prejudges the decision."
"There is a fear that the Constitutional Court has already taken a position. That cannot be questioned and the Constitutional Court should be given the opportunity to initiate a constitutional dispute itself," said Ćupić.
He believes that the constitutional culture in Montenegro has not yet developed and citizens still perceive this court as supra-supreme, which will review their verdict as the Supreme Court, which is why there are a large number of constitutional appeals.
Ćupić is a Doctor of Law and former Director General of the Directorate for Supervision at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
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