Anyone moving out of the country will have to deregister: What is stipulated in the draft law on registers of permanent residence and temporary residence?

Montenegrin citizens who plan to settle in another country, those who return from abroad to live in Montenegro, as well as those who plan to be outside of it for longer than three months - will have to report this to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP).

This is, among other things, envisaged in the Draft Amendments to the Law on Registers of Residence and Temporary Residence, which the Ministry of Interior's working group for the control of the voter list sent to the Parliamentary Committee for the Political System, Judiciary and Administration.

State Secretary in the MUP Novica Obradović The day before yesterday, he announced that they had submitted an initiative for a control debate to that parliamentary body, along with the draft.

He said that the voter list - or rather whether it includes "those who really deserve to be there" - is a topic that has burdened society for decades, and that they have therefore "conducted an extensive analysis" in the previous period.

The issue of the electoral register has been used as a weapon in daily political conflicts between parties for years. The Electoral Reform Committee was supposed to deal with its arrangement, but during the term of that working body (until the end of last year) - nothing was done on the issue. After the Committee's mandate was not extended, there were announcements that the parties could try to solve the problem with individual solutions, and so the head of the parliamentary group of the ruling Europe Now Movement (PES) Vasilije Carapić At the end of March, he said that the party would submit amendments to the Law on the Voters' Register for parliamentary procedure. However, they have not done so yet.

The draft, which "Vijesti" had access to, envisages ten amendments or supplements to the existing legal solution.

Article 1 of the draft prescribes the basic provisions relating to the content of the residence register, i.e. the method of updating data in the residence register, and also defines the meaning of a citizen's permanent connection with his or her residence, while Article 2 prescribes the content of the records of the registers in which, among other things, harmonisation with the Law on Same-Sex Life Partnerships is carried out, but also states the reason for residence abroad.

Article 3 of the Draft Law provides for an amendment to Article 10 of the existing law, by prescribing the methods of registering residence, registering changes in residence and address, as well as registering stays outside Montenegro for longer than 90 days, as well as registering returns to Montenegro.

"The intervention is such that citizens who plan to stay outside Montenegro for longer than 90 days must register their residence at the Ministry, and not through a diplomatic or consular mission. In this regard, an obligation, or duty, is foreseen to register a change of residence within eight days from the date of the change. They are also obliged to submit a change of address to the Ministry in the municipality where they reside," the document states.

It is prescribed that a citizen is obliged to submit a residence registration when settling in Montenegro - to the Ministry in the municipality where he intends to live, within eight days of settling.

"Also, in the event of a stay outside Montenegro of more than 90 days, a Montenegrin citizen is obliged to submit a report on leaving for another country to the Ministry in the municipality where he/she resides. After returning from another country, he/she is obliged to submit a report to the Ministry in the municipality where he/she resides, within eight days. A penalty provision is provided for all of the above obligations," the document states.

One of the most important proposals in the draft (Art. 4) refers to the amendment of Article 12 of the existing law, so that it now prescribes the deregistration of residence, or introduces the obligation to deregister residence for citizens leaving Montenegro, because the previous provision left it up to the citizens to decide whether to do so or not.

"... The majority did not do this, which is why they continued to remain registered at their place of residence, even though they were no longer permanently connected to Montenegro," it states.

Articles 5 and 6 of the Draft prescribe the verification of residence data through field inspections by authorized police officers.

"... Verification is also possible in cases where not only the registration of residence has occurred, as well as a change of residence from one municipality to another - which has so far been prescribed as the only possibility of conducting field checks of the accuracy of the registered address of residence - but also in cases of suspicion that data recorded in the existing records of the residence register has been changed, which provides the possibility of updating data in the residence register in a more comprehensive manner," the document states.

Article 7 of the Draft prescribes the criteria for determining residence, and adds case-appropriate terms to align with the Law on Same-Sex Life Partnership.

Article 8 of the Draft introduces the regulation of the registration of persons under the age of 18 who are born abroad, so that when these persons are registered in the birth registers, they are not simultaneously registered in the residence registers, but their residence is registered only when they settle in Montenegro, in the manner prescribed by the procedure for registering residence.

Article 10 of the Draft prescribes under which law the procedures for registering residence, registering a change of residence and change of address, as well as determining residence - will be initiated before the law enters into force...

"Given the fact that around 48.000 citizens did not replace their ID cards even after the expiry of the last deadline for replacement, which was prescribed for September 30, 2025, and since this number almost completely coincides with the number of adult citizens with permanent residence in Montenegro who were not listed in the last census of Montenegro in 2023, this number of citizens is recognized as those citizens who do not live in Montenegro, which is why Article 37a was introduced, which prescribes the obligation to delete them ex officio from the register of permanent residence," states the document that "Vijesti" had access to.

Challenges in cleaning the voter register

Novica Obradović said at the end of March that the Ministry of Interior had deleted 173 citizens who had died from the voter register.

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

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

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