Obradović: 371 new voters registered in Šavnik

State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) Novica Obradović said that the competent working group determined that in Šavnik, in the period since the closing of the voter list, 371 new voters have been registered, or that many citizens have changed their place of residence and been entered on the voter list for elections that have not been completed.

At a press conference in the Government, regarding the activities undertaken so far to control the voter register, he said that they had meetings with citizen representatives in Šavnik from whom they received certain information.

"Based on that, we started analyzing the process that took place there six months from the date of the closing of the voter list and determined that during that period the voter list was increased by 371 new voters, that is, 371 citizens of Montenegro changed their place of residence, predominantly from the municipalities of Nikšić and Danilovgrad to the territory of the municipality of Šavnik and were automatically registered in the voter list. At that moment and today, that is 23 percent of the total voter list," said Obradović.

He pointed out that if we take into account that in Šavnik 45 votes are needed to win one mandate, it turns out that seven to eight mandates would be won in this way.

He pointed out that during that period the Ministry of Interior had no legal basis to carry out any intervention.

He explained that in 2023, the Law on Residence Registers was amended, where Article 15 provided the possibility of conducting field checks.

After the voting process was blocked, Obradović said that 236 people who at one point came to live in Šavnik changed their place of residence again and returned to their old addresses.

"There were 135 left and we initiated field checks. When we initiated field checks, they continued to return to their old addresses of residence."

Obradović said that for 75 people it was determined that the center of their activities was not in the territory of the municipality of Šavnik, stating that these are people who may have land or relatives in Šavnik, but that they do not live there:

“Iskoristili su taj momenat kako bi promijenili prebivalište samo da bi uzeli učešće u izbornom procesu”.

Obradović said that they have initiated administrative procedures, solutions have been prepared so that people can be removed from their residences in accordance with the law, but due to the passage of time or the next return of these people to their old residence addresses, we are considering whether we will conduct another field control or continue with the removal procedure from the register of residence and temporary residence," Obradović said.

He pointed out that at this moment there are over 50 people out of the aforementioned 371 who still reside in Šavnik.

Regarding the activities undertaken so far to control the voter list, Obradović said that in February last year, the Minister of Interior Danilo Šaranović formed a working group dealing with the control of the voter list.

"We have held eight sessions so far," said Obradović.

He said that they also addressed the issue of the electoral process in Šavnik, where local elections have not been completed.

He explained that a domicile is the center where you permanently reside, and a person cannot have more than one.

When talking about the voter register, he said that citizenship is not an issue.

"Not all citizens of Montenegro have to have permanent residence in Montenegro," he said.

Obradović pointed out that by checking the data, they came to the information that after changing their ID cards in 2008, around 14.000 citizens did not get a new ID card.

"Around 14.000 citizens did not obtain an ID card during the analyzed period, and most of them did obtain passports. Who are these people who do not need an ID card, but do need a passport?" said Obradović.

He emphasized that in the last five years, they have sent notices three times to citizens who have not replaced their ID cards:

"We were unable to deliver around 11.000 notifications even after all attempts... Among these persons are a large number of those who have not predominantly lived in Montenegro for more than 20 years," said Obradović.

He said that 173 deceased citizens were deleted from the voter list.

"We have found evidence that they have passed away. We also have 99 whose status we cannot determine, there are indications that they have passed away. In order to establish that, a family member must come to report it," said Obradović.

He pointed out that there are 129 people over 100 years old on the voter list.

"We determined that 29 had taken out identity cards, we determined that five had passed away and we deleted them. But for 95 we cannot define their status, we do not know who these people are. What is interesting is that we have three people who are registered in the voter register and who were born in 1914," Obradović pointed out.

Speaking about people living abroad, Obradović said that they checked how many people were registered on the voter register and were born abroad.

"They acquired citizenship based on both parents, and there are 1.523 of them. No one is questioning their citizenship, but the question is whether they had the right to be registered in their place of residence. Some of them have passports that they obtained through diplomatic missions, but they do not have ID cards. For about 400 of them, we have no evidence that they ever entered Montenegro," says Obradović.

In the coming period, as Obradović said, he will submit amendments to the Law on Residence Registers and send them to the Election Reform Committee, the Political System Committee, and the Legislative Committee of the Parliament.

Obradović pointed out that the address register is not in order either.

Acting (acting) Director General of the Directorate for Civil Status and Personal Documents, Dragan Dašić, said in response to questions from journalists that the proposed amendments to the law provide, among other things, for data matching with state authorities, as well as penal provisions.

"The bottom line is that we are not entering into the citizenship status of Montenegrin citizens, but only their place of residence," said Dašić.

Obradović said that the subject of the working group's work was also matching with countries in the region, but that the law prohibits matching citizens' personal identification numbers.

Responding to the question of what the role of the Ministry of Diaspora is, which does not have a database, Obradović said that they did not come to the session and that they could not provide the requested information.

"The bottom line is that we are not entering into the citizenship status of Montenegrin citizens, but only their place of residence," said Dašić.

Obradović said that the subject of the working group's work was also matching with countries in the region, but that the law prohibits matching citizens' personal identification numbers.

Responding to the question of what the role of the Ministry of Diaspora is, which does not have a database, Obradović said that they did not come to the session and that they could not provide the requested information.