URA: This is what the ballot would look like if the Open Lists Law is adopted

The civic movement URA announced today what the ballot would look like if, as they stated in the statement, the Law on Open Lists, which the party submitted to the parliamentary procedure yesterday, is adopted.

"The parliamentary club of the Civic Movement URA submitted to the parliamentary procedure yesterday the Proposal for Amendments to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives relating to the introduction of open lists into our electoral system," the statement states.

The party added that the adoption of this law would increase the influence of voters and reduce the influence of parties, because citizens would directly decide who would represent them in parliament, ahead of the party they voted for.

They add that open lists would restore citizens' trust in the electoral process, and political representatives would have a greater degree of responsibility, as they would be elected directly by citizens.

"By adopting the law on open lists, the ballot would essentially be divided into a left and a right side. The voter votes by circling the ordinal number in front of an electoral list on the left side of the ballot or by circling the name of the electoral list, and on the right side of the ballot, circling the numbers of up to 10 candidates from the electoral list for the election of deputies in the Parliament of Montenegro, or up to 7 candidates from the electoral list for the election of councilors in the Municipal Assembly, the Assembly of the Capital City, the Assembly of the Royal Capital," ERO said.

They stated in the statement that Article 4 introduces an obligation for the complete list of candidates for each party, along with additional information sheets, to be available at every polling station and in every polling booth in order to facilitate the voting process for citizens - citizens would thus have access to all candidates while voting.

"Article 5 regulates the voting method in detail and defines valid and invalid ballots. A vote for a candidate can only be cast with a valid vote for the electoral list to which the candidate belongs, which means that if a voter marks a candidate without marking the electoral list, such a ballot will be considered invalid. A ballot is also valid if the voter circles only the ordinal number in front of the electoral list or by circling the name of the electoral list. In that case, the vote is counted for the electoral list. If a voter marks more candidates than the number prescribed in paragraph 1 of this article, preferential votes are invalid, while the vote for the electoral list remains valid," ERO said.

The party states that they have proposed a functional and simple solution for open lists, but that the law stipulates that the CEC (Central Election Commission) conduct educational campaigns in various forms to familiarize citizens with the open list system and the voting method.