Bečić: The regulation of the voter register must not be interpreted as an issue directed against anyone

The regulation of the voter register must not be interpreted as an issue directed against anyone, but exclusively as the need to harmonize the register with the Constitution and laws of Montenegro, said Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić.

Bečić, as announced by his office, said this at the opening of the round table "Voters' List - Electoral Integrity of Montenegro".

He stated that the roundtable is a representative and credible forum that brings together representatives of the legislative and executive branches, international institutions, the non-governmental sector, the academic community, and the media, with the aim of conducting an argumentative dialogue on one of the most important issues of the electoral process.

Bečić congratulated and thanked the Working Group for the Control of the Voter Register for more than a year of dedicated and dedicated work.

According to Bečić, the analyses, conclusions and results of the Working Group are an important contribution to further improving the electoral process.

Speaking about the importance of the topic of the voter register, he emphasized that democratic and free elections are the foundation and support of every democratic society, recalling that Article 2 of the Constitution of Montenegro represents a guide for all social and political actors.

Bečić emphasized that a credible electoral process, democratic and free elections, are the common goal of all well-intentioned actors in society, since the constitution of the legislative and executive branches of government stems from the democratically expressed will of citizens, in accordance with the Constitution.

"In my humble opinion, the two foundations of a credible electoral process are, on the one hand, freedom - freedom in political candidacy, action, reflection, communication of views, freedom in the election and voting itself, and, on the other hand, what is an accurate, orderly and reliable voter register," said Bečić.

Speaking about freedom, he assessed that Montenegro had achieved significant democratic progress after August 30th.

"I think that one of the greatest values ​​and greatest achievements that August 30th brought is freedom. So the electoral processes that we witnessed in previous years were indeed, in general terms, true celebrations of democracy in terms of freedom and in many ways resembled electoral processes in the most developed European countries," Bečić pointed out.

Speaking about the challenges Montenegro faces in this area, he emphasized that they are predominantly products of the legacy of the past and certain legal restrictions that prevent full momentum in terms of process efficiency, in order to slow down the achievement of a full degree of up-to-dateness and reliability of the voter register.

As stated, Bečić specifically referred to experiences at the local level, citing the example of the municipality of Šavnik, where the analysis of the work of the Working Group and the activities of the competent authorities pointed to the consequences of electoral engineering and the need to further improve residence control mechanisms.

According to him, this momentum of challenges at the local level in terms of electoral engineering is being addressed through two key lines of action, the first of which relates to an important decision by the Montenegrin Parliament which, through amendments to the law on the election of councilors and representatives, envisages holding local elections in one day, which will significantly reduce the space and motivation for electoral manipulation.

"The second direction relates to further improving the legislative and institutional framework in the field controls of the Police Directorate in cases of suspected change of residence," added Bečić.

Presenting part of the Working Group's findings, he pointed out that at the reference point of the census, the number of voters was more than 48 thousand higher than the number of adult citizens residing in Montenegro, with this number almost completely coinciding with the number of persons who had not fulfilled the legal obligation to replace their ID cards.

Of that number, as Bečić added, there are over ten thousand who have not replaced their ID card even during the previous replacement in 2008, or almost 20 years.

"The actions of these individuals are in direct contradiction to the Law on Identity Cards and the Law on Registers of Residence and Temporary Residence, or the definition of residence. These are significant indicators and important signs in which direction we should act," Bečić emphasized.

He said that the issue of regulating the voter register should not be interpreted as an issue directed against anyone, but exclusively as the need to harmonize the voter register with the Constitution and laws of Montenegro.

"These discussions and these analyses are not directed against anyone. They are only aimed at aligning our voter list with what the Constitution of Montenegro and the legislative framework are," said Bečić.

As he stated, the absurdity in the Montenegrin legal system is that a citizen who temporarily resides outside Montenegro for longer than 90 days is obliged to report this change of residence to the authorities, which is of course not controversial, but on the other hand, for example, a citizen who decides to permanently move and live outside Montenegro, to make it his place of residence and center of life activities, is not obliged to deregister his residence with the competent authorities in Montenegro.

"How can we have a reliable and accurate voter register if we do not have up-to-date registers of deregistration of residence, or if there is no legal obligation to deregister residence," Bečić pointed out.

He also emphasized that there is no connection between the possible deregistration of residence and the loss of Montenegrin citizenship, saying that the diaspora is a great strength and a great treasure of Montenegro.

"The fact that someone deregisters their residence from Montenegro does not mean that they will lose their Montenegrin citizenship, nor does anyone have such intentions," said Bečić.

He pointed out the importance of field inspections and the need to expand them to all cases of doubt about the legality of data in the registers.

"Improving the field control framework, so that it does not only refer to the field control of changes of residence from one municipality to another within Montenegro, but also to any suspicions of the competent authorities in relation to what is written in the law. Because no one who works in accordance with the law should be afraid of field controls," said Bečić, adding that this is why he always encourages field controls.

As he said, standardizing the obligation to deregister residence, introducing field controls for all suspicions of competent authorities, and legally resolving the deregistration of residence for thousands and thousands of people who have not replaced their ID cards for decades is the basis for solving problems and challenges with the voter register in Montenegro.

As announced, Bečić also touched on other ideas or solutions generally related to electoral legislation that have already been implemented in some countries, such as voter identification by fingerprint, video surveillance of certain phases of the work of polling stations, except for those that guarantee the secrecy of voting, introducing a photograph as part of the voter list, and the like.

"These are all issues from the broader scope of electoral legislation that of course need to be discussed, but I consider these three related to the voter register that I previously mentioned to be dominant for what I believe is the goal of all of us. That no one is deprived of an iota, that we respect the Constitution and the Law, and that we have a reliable and credible voter register," said Bečić.

He called for the continuation of reasoned debate and the organization of as many such forums as possible in order to strengthen citizens' trust in the electoral process and democratic institutions.

"Dialogue is the basis of everything. Let everyone have their views, but let everyone bear responsibility for the consequences of their views. Ours was to propose solutions," Bečić emphasized.

Minister of Internal Affairs Danilo Šaranović, speaking about the Working Group that controls the voter register, said that the goals and tasks, and especially the analyses and conclusions reached by the Working Group, fully justified its formation.

He stated that the registers contain several thousand people who have not replaced their ID cards for years, even decades, but are registered exclusively with their passports, and that an analysis of registered voters by residential address has determined a significant level of inaccuracy in the address register, as well as that there is a large number of citizens for whom the state does not have precise data on the exact residential address.

Šaranović added that the existence of deceased people who are still listed on the voter register has also been determined, as well as cases of people born at the beginning of the 20th century, which further indicates the need to update and clean up the records.

"This situation represents a set of serious challenges that require institutional and systemic action to establish the full integrity of the voter register," concluded Šaranović.