More than half of Montenegrin citizens believe that people receive money for voting in elections, every other person says that people are blackmailed to vote, and a fifth doubts that votes are counted fairly.
This was shown by research within the "Montenegro National Election Study".
Olivera Komar, chief researcher of the Montenegrin Election Study, at the conference organized by the Center for Monitoring (CeMI), presenting the results of the research, stated that half of the citizens who participated in the research have confidence in the State Election Commission (SEC), while 45,9 percent have little or no trust.
Regarding the structure of turnout at the elections, she said that older voters dominate, and that there is a problem with younger (18-34 years) voters because they are below average.
"The specificity of Montenegro is that men and women vote equally on average. This is a good phenomenon and potential in the further activation of women," said Komar.
She also said that the results showed that men are more interested in politics.
She also said that a third of respondents believe that Montenegro is not a democratic state, while 47 percent believe that it is more than not.
She said that the survey showed that about 12 percent of respondents said that after the election they were dissatisfied with what they voted for.
"Every fifth abstainer is not satisfied that he did not vote," said Komar.
She said that 50,8 percent of women believe that the percentage of women in the Parliament is too low.
When asked who is most suitable to lead the country in times of public health crisis, Komar said that 53,9 percent of respondents said that it would be appropriate for women and men to lead equally.
When asked who is most suitable to lead the country in times of economic crisis, she said that 53,7 percent of respondents said that it would be appropriate for women and men to lead equally.
Živković: 50,9 percent of the respondents said that it was not at all likely that they would comment on political and social topics on social networks
Slaven Živković, researcher of the Montenegrin Election Study, presented a section related to the consumption of media and social networks during the election campaign.
He said that fewer and fewer citizens are informed through television, and more and more through social networks and internet portals.
He also said that the research showed that 50,9 percent of the respondents said that they were not at all likely to comment on political and social topics on social networks, while 6,2 percent said that they were very likely to comment.
He also said that 52,8 percent of respondents said that it was not at all likely that they would engage in a discussion with dissenters on social networks, while 7,9 percent said that they would be very likely to engage.
Komar: Strengthen the position of the SEC, educate young people about the importance of elections...
Komar said that the conclusion of all the data from the research is that the trust of citizens should be strengthened in such a way that the data on the basis of which discussions are conducted will be cross-border, strengthen the position of the SEC, and that it is necessary to educate young people about the importance of elections, to work on the activation of the female electorate and regulate the behavior of the Internet media during the election.
"Obviously, there is a need to work with voters, especially the younger ones. The wave of abstention is slowly reaching us, and it predominantly comes from the younger electorate," she assessed.
"Data on the structure of the voters should be contained in the reports"
Komar pointed out that it would be a good practice if the data contained in the identity card, such as gender, place of residence, were contained in the reports from the elections themselves.
Zlatko Vujović, president of the CeMI Board of Directors, recalled the discussion on whether the identity cards of Montenegrin citizens are biometric or not.
"ID cards with a chip are biometric. If the readers at the polling stations were electronically connected, we could have extensive statistics in real time - not only on the turnout, but also on the structure of the voters. We are talking about unused resources," said Vujović.
"We don't often have research for scientific purposes"
Very often certain research is done for parties, and we don't often have research for scientific purposes, said Komar.
"At the same time, we have scientific research that has a lot of data and the beginning of the story of the reform. We can make a contribution with the research that was done only for science. The Montenegrin election study is a long-term project. The focus is on electoral integrity. In this research, there was so-called electoral integrity That integrity was formed on the basis of - whether the votes are counted fairly, whether the opposition has the conditions to run and whether it functions in the right way, how the media is involved, whether people are paid to vote, whether election officials are impartial and to what extent voters are blackmailed. This is based on the perception of citizens," said Komar.
She pointed out that the question "Can the opposition freely run for office and highlight its candidacy?" 37,7 percent of respondents say that there is no prevention, and 22,8 percent that there is.
Živković: The investigation is done when the passions subside after the election
Živković said that the "Montenegro National Electoral Study" is a project they have been working on since 2012, when Montenegro was included in the international project "Complementary Studies of Electoral Systems".
"Today, we present only part of the data. In addition to many benefits, we can compare the results over time. We had one survey after 2020 and after the 2023 elections. The sample was representative - 1.002 respondents. The survey is conducted when passions subside after the elections, when we ask citizens for whom have voted," Zivkovic said.
"Half of citizens believe that voters are paid to vote for someone"
Komar pointed out that more than half of the respondents believe that voters are paid to vote for someone.
"Every other person believes that people are paid to vote for a certain option. If you believe something is reality, it becomes reality because you direct your behavior according to it," she said.
As she added, every second person who was questioned believes that someone was blackmailed into voting in a certain way.
Vujović: We are dealing with electoral reform
Vujović said that in the research that is part of the Montenegrin Electoral Study, they are dealing with electoral reform.
"A parliamentary committee for comprehensive electoral reform was formed, including members from the NGO sector and the academic community, among others, and representatives of CEMI," Vujović said.
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