Why has the reform of electoral legislation been held hostage to political calculations and party interests for more than a decade...?

Why has the reform of electoral legislation been held hostage to political calculations and party interests for more than a decade, and how did Montenegro once again find itself in a situation where it is discussing changes to key electoral laws just a year before the 2027 parliamentary elections, despite the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the OSCE not to change electoral rules immediately before the elections?

At the same time, the latest non-paper of the European Commission warns that the completion of electoral reform is one of the conditions that Montenegro must meet in order to create the conditions for closing negotiation chapters 23 and 24 by the end of the year.

How to reconcile European demands and democratic standards, and will public interest prevail over party calculations this time?

Electoral reform has always been a victim of politics because no government has been willing, able, or skilled to carry it through to the end, according to some in the opposition and civil society.

"In Montenegro, whenever a Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform is formed and something concrete needs to be done, concretely completed, the committees for comprehensive electoral reform become victims of political bickering. And this has been the case in every convocation of the Parliament since I have been involved in politics," Zoran Mikić, a member of parliament from the Civic Movement URA, told Television Vijesti.

"Formally, legally or on some verbal level, everyone will say as they said they were for electoral reform, and then when they assessed after the July changes that this was a sufficient concession that something had been done, they actually completely destroyed or shut down the Electoral Reform Committee in September," said Dragan Koprivica, executive director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT).

Although the government and opposition reached an agreement last July to hold the elections on one day and increase the representation of women on electoral lists, key laws on residency, party financing and open lists are still awaiting amendments. A majority requires two-thirds support in parliament, which is difficult to come by while the opposition is boycotting the work of the Electoral Reform Committee over controversial security laws. And time is running out...

In its latest non-paper on the rule of law, the European Union asked Montenegro to implement electoral reform as soon as possible, amend electoral legislation and align it with European standards in order to meet the conditions for closing key chapters 23 and 24, specifically on the rule of law.

However, part of the public interprets this message as a new concession by Brussels in order to achieve the goal of Montenegro closing all negotiation chapters by the end of the year. Interlocutors of Television Vijesti believe that the EU is ready to accept changes to electoral laws less than a year before the elections, despite the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the OSCE, not to do so due to the possible impact on the electoral process.

"It is clear that we are getting a lot of concessions from our partners from the European Commission in numerous areas because it is clear that it is almost impossible to comply with all the strict norms in the next six months when the Government has set out to close all facilities. I think that the election laws will have to undergo at least minimal changes, of a technical-procedural and legal nature, in order for the elections to be held," said Mikić.

"What was supposed to be a comprehensive reform has become a comprehensive reform. We did not get what was written in the decision to establish the committee, we did not get what is customary for citizens, and we have not received any clear effect of that reform so far. Whether we will get it, we will see, how things will play out, we will see, but I believe that the next elections will, in essence, take place according to the electoral rules that are currently in force," said Koprivica.

Since the work of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform has been blocked, the URA will soon organize several thematic sessions at the Committee for Political System, Judiciary and Administration to discuss amendments to the Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence Registers, proposed by the Ministry of Interior, and the Law on Councilors and Representatives, in the part relating to the introduction of open lists.