Elections Report, Elections in Montenegro, October 2002 – May 2003

Center for Democratic Transition

www.cdtmn.org 1

The Center for Democratic Transition

Podgorica, 2003.

CDT


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ELECTIONS IN MONTENEGRO Editor in chief The Center for Democratic Transition – CDT Podgorica For the editor Marko Čanović Technical editor in chief Aleksandar Pajević Print Grafo Crna Gora, Podgorica Circulation 800 copies Podgorica, 2003.

CDT – LET FREEDOM BE YOUR CHOICE

Address: Bratstva i jedinstva 65/II, Podgorica Telephone/fax: 081 60 10 50

www.cdtmn.org E-mail: [email protected]

We would like to thank National Democratic Institute which, with the assistance of USAID, provided financial and technical

support for this project.


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The Center for Democratic Transiton

Podgorica, 2003.

CDT


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CCOONNTTEENNTT INTRODUCTION 4 OUR »ID CARD« 4 1. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ELECTION PROCEDURE IN MONTENEGRO OCTOBER 2002 - MAY 2003 5 1.1. PARLIAMETARY AND LOCAL ELECTIONS IN TIVAT AND PODGORICA 6 1.2. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, 22 DECEMBER 2002 – 11MAY 2003 7 2. CODE OF CONDUCT DURING THE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN 8

2.1. PARLIAMENTARY AND LOCAL ELECTIONS IN PODGORICI AND TIVAT, OCTOBER 2002 10 2.2. SIGNING THE AGREEMENT 12

2.2.1. MONITORING OF PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN 14 2.2.2. THE ASSASEMENT OF THE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN 15

2.3. THE EXPENDITURES OF POLITICAL PARTIES DURING CAMPAIGN 16

3. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 22 DECEMBER 2002 AND 9 FEBRUARY 2003 17

3.1. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 22 DECEMBER 2002 19 3.2. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 9 FEBRUARY 2003 20 3.3. PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN 24 3.4. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 11 MAY 2003 26 3.5. ORGANIZATION OF THE FIELDWORK 27 3.6. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 2002 29 3.7. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 2002 30 3.8. REPEATED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS FEBRUARY 2003 32

4. NOTICED IRREGULARITIES 33

4.1. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 35 4.2. . PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 9 FEBRUARY/MAY 2003 36

5. PVT 38 6. RECOMMENDATIONS 40 6.1 Law on the Election of Councillors and Representatives 41 6.2 Law on Financing of Political Parties 42 7. LETTER OF THANKS 43 8. ANNEX 44


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IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN

The Center for Democratic Transition conducted four campaigns of election monitoring, in the period from October 2002 to May 2003.

CDT monitored conducting of political parties campaigns, i.e. presidential candidates campaigns, election day and also gave the contribution to the legaslative process.

Thanks to Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), on the bases of representative sample, we managed to inform the public on the election results, in very short-term period after closing of polling stations.

During the election day we were also informing the public on the voters’ turnout. According to the monitoring of the pre-electio campaign and the very election day we

conclude that the elections held in the period from October 20002 to May 2003 had been conducted in the atmosphere which enabled the citizens of Montenegro to express their will freely. Noticed irregularities could not significantly influence regularity of the elections.

We believe that are certain steps further in political party capmaigns but we also point out to insufficient commitment of parties to proposing concrete economic and social programs.

The significan progress in respecting election procedure is also made. The Republican and the Municipal Election Commissiona as well as representavies of political parties who took place in conducting the election procedure also showed high level of professionalism.

Having in mind that in Montenegro we still do not have sufficiently developed democratic consciouness on respecting political oponents we decided to try to build the necessary trust and mutual respect among all the partiicipans in the election contest by signing onto Codes of Conducts during the pre-election campaign.

In the period from signing Codes of Conduct, CDT associates, municipal and regional coordinators monitored the promotion rallies of political parties i.e. presidential candidates in all municipalites.

CDT wants to point out to the negative sides of the political party campaigns which unecessarily raised political tensions:

• The clashes among the party opponents; • Great number of improper statements issued by the party leadership; • The apperiance of anonimous political materilas; • Destroying of public and private properties by graffiti and propaganda materials; • The incidents related to banning the journalist to be present on the promotion rallies; • Extremely great number of requests for home-bound voting, and possible pressure put

on the voters. CDT noticed some of the above mentioned negative apperiances and informed the

domestic and international public about them in due time, while CDT could not provide valid evidences either for the phenomenon of the home bound voting which was characterized by certain parties as a great pressure on voters or for the rumours on bribing the voters.


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OOUURR IIDD CCAARRDD

The Center for Democratic Transition is a nongovernmental organization established in August 2000 with a goal to positively influence and further improve the beginning of transition processes in Montenegro. This organization gathers mainly young people who try to promote norms and standards accepted in developed democracies.

Undemocratic atmosphere in elections directed to necessary involvement of the civil sector in the election process as well as its demystification. For the above-mentioned reasons, as well as due to the specific political situation we decided that in its work CDT should pay special attention to election monitoring. Moreover, we support not only the application of the legal and democratic infrastructure in order to have fair and honest elections; but also support further improvement of human rights, rights of the national minorities, transparency of the processes of the privatization and involvement of a vast number of citizens in establishing their full political and civic rights.

CDT conducted its first civil election-monitoring project in September 2000, monitoring the regularity of the Federal Elections. Since than CDT has conducted seven civil election monitoring campaigns:

Parliamentary elections in Serbia in 2000; Extraordinary parliamentary elections in Montenegro in April 2001; Elections for displaced persons from Kosovo on the territory of Montenegro in

November 2001; Local elections in Montenegro in 2002; Parliamentary elections in Montenegro in 2002; Monitoring of presidential elections in the period form 22 December 2002 to 11 May

2003.

The staff of the CDT headquarters in Podgorica coordinate CDT activities, within monitoring of the election processes, while the operational activities are performed by six regional, 30 municipal coordinators and more than 1000 trained volunteers.

PVT (Parallel Vote Tabulation) is a statistic method, based on a random representative sample, CDT used for projecting the voters’ turnout and the final election results. We reached the greatest success (with the margin error of 0,5%) in the parliamentary elections in October 2002, when we launched the election results only 55 minutes after closing of polling stations. We were also announcing precise election results during the presidential elections.

All of our observations and analyses were publicly announced and their results were introduced to the relevant domestic and foreign institutions and representatives. In cooperation with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) from Washington, we monitored the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 2000. In June 2002, a CDT representative was in Macedonia where we had trainings for the newly founded Macedonian organization MOST. Within the OSCE monitoring mission a CDT representative also monitored the presidential elections in Byelorussia in 2002, as well as the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in 2003.

In the period from March to May 2003, through the network of Montenegrin NGO called

Action, CDT conducted the campaign “Farewell to Arms” in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro. On the territory of Montenegro in cooperation with the police our volunteers collected 34233 units of unregistered firearms and munitions,


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handed over deliberately by 1200 citizens. The amount of firearms handed over deliberately in this two months lasting campaign is equal to the amount that police managed to confiscated under force in the period of three or four years.

In the period from July to December 2001, we also realized the first part of the project

“Open Parliament,” which encourages citizens’ involvement and visits of educative character to the Montenegrin Parliament and meetings with representatives. In October 2003, we have started with the realization of the second phase of the project. The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) – with the support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) – implemented the Internship Pilot Project in the Montenegrin Parliament between 15 July and 15 September. The purpose of the project was preparation of the Internship Program. The internship Program is a program of additional student education, which means that, apart from the knowledge they get in the faculty, students also acquire some practical experience as temporary, part-time employees in state institutions. We launched the Internship Program in October 2003, and in the Montenegrin Parliament at the moment we have the first generation of interns made of ten students from the Economics, Law and Electro-technical faculties. CDT is also a member of international informal network of NGOs called ENEMO, as well as the Montenegrin network NGO Akcija.


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OOCCTTOOBBEERR 22000022 -- MMAAYY 22000033 The Center for Democratic Transition has conducted four election-monitoring campaigns in the period from October 2002 to May 2003. On the basis of monitoring pre-election campaigns and election day we concluded that the elections passed in a relatively acceptable atmosphere. All noted irregularities could not importantly influence the regularity of the election process. 1.1 Parliamentary elections and local elections in Podgorica and Tivat, October 2002 The elections held on 20 October were conducted in a fair and democratic atmosphere, which would enable constitution of the Republic and local parliaments in Podgorica and Tivat, in accordance with the expressed will of the citizens. Political party campaigns were conducted in an acceptable atmosphere. We believe that certain steps forward were noticed in the political party campaigns, but apart from that we point out that the political parties do not pay enough attention to proposing concrete economic and social programs.

CDT would like to point out that negative aspects of the political party campaigns, which provoked unnecessary rising of political tensions, were the following:

• Clashes of party opponents in Niksic and Berane • A great number of inappropriate statements issued by party leaders • Appearance of anonymous political materials in all municipalities • Destroying of public and private property by graffiti and propaganda materials • Incidents linked to banning journalists from party rallies

On Election day, we observed the course of the electoral procedures at more than 90% of

the polling stations. We conducted Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) in order to control the election results, and we were the first to present projected results to the Montenegrin public. We point out that the work of the Republican Election Commission (REC) as well as Municipal Election Commissions (MEC) was assessed as generally good, although some election procedures have been changed after calling for elections, which is not according to the international practice. The election organs were very quickly adjusted to the new legal regulations and regarding their application they stuck to them strictly. We also welcome the initiative of the REC that, in cooperation with CDT and other NGO’s, carried out voter education about novelties in the election law. 1.2 Presidential elections, 22 December 2002 – 11 May 2003

The presidential elections held on 22 December in Montenegro were generally conducted in a democratic atmosphere. As far as the election procedure is concerned, we believe that the presidential elections were a step forward compared to the parliamentary elections held this year. However, due to the legal solution that 50% +1 number of voters out of the total number


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of registered voters has to cast their ballot, the elections did not succeed because the opposition parties boycotted the election. At the repeated elections held on 9 February 2003, due to inability to change the law because it was about the unique election cycle, a sufficient number of citizens did not cast their ballot either this time. During the campaign, the opposition parties accused the government of pressuring and blackmailing citizens in order to get them out to vote. CDT did not get any concrete proofs for similar actions, but it pointed out publicly that the citizens have a legal right to decide on their own whether they would vote or not and that pressuring and blackmailing citizens was a criminal act. Moreover, the imprecise division between the party and state functions caused doubt that the governing parties illegally used the state resources for the purpose of the party during the election campaign. CDT will not work on a "get-out-the-vote" campaign for the citizens. According to our opinion, boycott is a legitimate political decision. However, in countries where democracy has just begun, we think that non-participation in elections is not a good political judgment. After failed February elections we highly recommended that the legal provision on the obligatory turnout of 50% should be abolished because it was not in conformity with the international standards. CDT representative Raško Konjević participated in the session of the Legislative Committee of the Montenegrin Parliament where he presented our points of view regarding this issue. However, the disputed article has been changed, and consequently the new presidential elections held on 11 May succeeded and Montenegro got the new President Filip Vujanovic, who was the candidate of the governing parties. Within the activities conducted by CDT in these three election cycles, we realized PVT and thanks to it we had a precise projection soon after the closure of the polling stations. We also signed the Agreement for a Fair Campaign with the presidential candidates.


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Since the parliamentary elections in April 2001, the Center for Democratic Transition has been signing a Code of Conduct with the political parties during the pre election campaign. Considering that, we still have not sufficiently developed democratic consciousness on respecting our political opponents we decided to try to build necessary confidence and inter respect among the election contestants through signing onto the similar agreements. The fair and democratic pre-election campaign is one of preconditions for having fair elections, which will express the citizens' will. The above-mentioned agreements represent readiness of the political parties to respect the norms and regulations they are obliged to by signing them in public. We point out that we are the first organization in the region, which was able to reach the agreement, and sign onto the similar political acts with the political parties and to track their application. 2.1. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS AND LOCAL ELECTIONS IN PODGORICA AND TIVAT – OCTOBER 2002

After signing the Belgrade Agreement in March 2002, when the new form of state structure out of the former joint state of Montenegro and Serbia had been created, new political crisis were opened only one year after the regular parliamentary elections, in April 2001. The Liberal Alliance of Montenegro (LSCG) and the Social democratic Party (SDP) did not give a vote of confidence to the government of the Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic because they disagreed with provisions of the Agreement about the new union and thus opened the way to extraordinary parliamentary elections. Due to the crisis in the work of local authorities in Podgorica and Tivat, local elections were called for in these municipalities. It is significant to notice that, in that period on the initiative of ad hoc formed parliamentary majority consisted of the parties, members of the coalition “Together for Yugoslavia” and LSCG, the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives was changed, as well as the way of representing the parties in the pre-election campaign in media. These changes in the election legislature caused a lot of complaints of both the national and international public. The New law provisions were passed after calling for elections, which was not in accordance with the international practice. According to the assessment of national and international organizations observing election processes in Montenegro, passed changes and amendments represented a step backward in relation to the former Law. They were passed even without consensus of all parliamentary parties what was the practice in the former political life of Montenegro. With the intervention of OSCE and other international factors and upon long lasting negotiations, a compromise between the parties was made. Moreover, new provisions in accordance with international standards were also passed, and at the same time they represented an annex to the election legislation. After long lasting negotiations, judges of the Constitutional Court were also elected which presented necessary prerequisite for holding elections. 2.2. SIGNING THE AGREEMENT Considering political activities that preceded calling for elections, as well as activities in relation with changes of the legal legislature, CDT estimated that it was necessary to sign into Code of Conduct during the pre-election campaign with all parliamentary parties. The level of political non-tolerance and raised political tensions represented the additional reason for making this


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kind of document. With the support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the draft version of the Agreement was formulated and offered to the parliamentary parties. The final version was done after the agreement with the representatives of political parties. Tolerant relations between the parties, the respect for procedures and legislation in election procedure, fair election campaign, respect for election citizens' will, are some of chapters in the Agreement signed by all parliamentary parties-Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Socialist People's Party (SNP), Social democratic Party (SDP), Serbian People's Party (SNS), Liberal Alliance (LSCG), People's Party (NS) and Democratic Union (DUA). After a long time, the representatives of all parliamentary parties took part in the round table discussion on 20 September 2002 and with act of signing the Code obliged themselves to the norms prescribed by the above-mentioned document1. The essence and spirit of the Code presented the parties’ promise to citizens that they would conduct a fair and democratic campaign. With the aim of the document’s better implementation, representatives of all the signatory parties formed a joint commission, which observed the respect of the Code with the support from CDT and NDI. After the meetings of the commission, CDT issued public statements, in which we presented our view of pre-election campaign. 2.2.1. MONITORING THE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN Since the Code of Conduct has been signed, CDT’s associates, municipal and regional coordinators were monitoring over 200 promotion rallies of political parties in all municipalities. We presented their reports to the representatives of political parties on joint weekly meetings and pointed out the necessity of correcting mistakes that were made referring to the respect of the signed document. CDT was also monitoring all the media activities of the parties and observing if there were some elements of violation of the Code. All the municipal boards of signatory parties were informed by direct contacts about the content and the way of implementation of the document. 2.2.2. THE ASSESMENT OF THE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN The Center for Democratic Transition believes that the signed Code was respected in general. There were, of course, some violation of the signed document in domain of inadequate conduct toward political opponents in media presentation, conflicts between political opponents in Niksic and Berane, appearance of anonymous political materials in all municipalities, destroying of public and private properties with graffiti and propaganda materials, incidents linked to banning journalists from party rallies, etc. CDT informed the public about all these irregularities with press conferences, public statements2 and interviews, our representatives had in different media. We would like to emphasize that in the period from 15 September to 23 October Montenegrin printed media published 43 articles about CDT activities on monitoring the pre-election political party campaigns, which testifies about the trust of seventh force in our analysis and findings. ŽELJKO IVANOVIĆ, director of Independent Daily, ID »Vijesti«

1 In the Annex you can find the whole document of the Code of Conduct. 2 In the Annex you can find some of the CDT statements.


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... »I want to point out that CDT’s assessments on the pre-election campaign were highly presented in Montenegrin media in printed one as well as electronic one. The Center for Democratic Transition, apart from OSCE, was present in media more than any other organizations or institutions, which were in charge or included anyhow in monitoring of the electoral process. Professional way in which CDT directed to notice oversights, I can see as a good way of influencing the development of further democratic principles in our society.”... 2.3. EXPENDITURES OF THE PARTIES DURING THE CAMPAIG Signatory political parties were obliged by Code of Conduct during the campaign that » political parties shall publicize their election campaign expenditures within 10 days of election day, in all means of public informing«. All of the parties individually delivered the following data about funds spent in the campaign to CDT. DPS spent €28 566, €NS 21 500, SDP around €14 000 and Democratic Union around €9 000. Representatives of SNP, SNS and LSCG had not reported about the funds spent in campaigning. We would like to point out that according to the Article 9 of the Law on Financing of Political Parties it is prescribed that the limited amount of 250 average salaries for the last month is the amount that parties can spend during campaigning. The above-mentioned article refers to the following forms of electoral propaganda: posters, advertisements, radio and TV broadcast, advertising video clips, publications. CDT was monitoring party activities and keeping the files of these forms of political propaganda. Due to those files3 and prices of those propaganda services, some of the parties exceeded the limits prescribed by the Law if they had paid for propaganda services by official prices. CDT believes that the current Law on Financing of the Political Parties is not good and we appeal to the Parliament and the Government of Montenegro to pass the new Law on Financing of the Political Parties by the end of 2003. As CDT mentioned several times, and with all our pleasure the others also notice the same that the Article 10 of the current Law on Financing of the Political Parties has not been obeyed. We would like to emphasize once more that in accordance with that article political parties that have MPs in Parliament were obliged to make special Agreement 15 days within election day, with regards to control the funds spent in campaigning. In the Article 8 paragraph 2 of the above-mentioned, Law parties are enabled to collect donations for covering their expenses. We find unnecessary that it should be defined more precisely what it is meant by donations. It should be also obligatory to announce publicly all collected donations, with the amount and the source. It is also necessary that in-kind donations, their sources and purposes should be defined precisely in the new Law. The new Law should precisely define the sources of financing, the appropriate limits and a form of the report, which would be published in means of public informing. However, we will insist on finances of political parties to be more transparent. We remind that the information about funds available to the political parties during pre-election campaign have to be known to the public, which is a necessary prerequisite of forming the democratic atmosphere in a society. 3 In the Annex you can find a file on the number of advertisements published in printed media, number of billboards and seconds on private TV stations.


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33..11.. PPRREESSIIDDEENNTTIIAALL EELLEECCTTIIOONNSS 2222 DDEECCEEMMBBEERR 22000022 After the extraordinary Parliamentary elections and the constitution of the new parliamentary majority, a political life was enhanced with the new elections, this time with regular-presidential ones. The strongest opposition parties didn’t have their own candidate on these elections, so they were less interesting and significant from the aspect of political competition. The coalition »Together for changes« and the Liberal Alliance called for their members and supporters not to go for elections. According to the Article 16 of the former Law on the Elections of the President of the Republic in order to have successful elections more than half of citizens registered in voters' register shall go for elections. Focus of the public interest was directed to the question whether the elections would succeed, i.e. in other words whether the census would be fulfilled as prescribed by the Law. Very liberal provisions of the Law regarding the possibility of candidacy permitted that eleven candidates could take part in elections, seven on behalf of the political parties and four candidates on behalf of a group of citizens. 3.2. PPRREESSIIDDEENNTTIIAALL EELLEECCTTIIOONNSS,, 99 FEBRUARY 2003 After insufficient citizens' turnout in the first round of the presidential elections, REC made decision that repeated elections for the President of the Republic would be held on 9 February 2003. In repeated elections, according to the Law, it was necessary that more than half citizens registered in the voters' register cast the ballot, and in a case this condition was not fulfilled the whole electoral procedure would be repeated again. The same candidates took the part in these elections as well as in the elections on 22 December because according to the Law the possibility of participation of the new candidates was not stipulated. 3.3. PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN As in the previous elections, CDT prepared the Code of Conduct during the pre-election campaign4. Seven presidential candidates: Filip Vujanović, Dragan Hajduković, Aleksandar Vasilijević, Milivoje Bakić, Ilija Darmanović, Milan Šparović i Đorđije Milić agreed with provisions of the document. The presidential candidates who signed onto this agreement were obliged: Not to influence the electoral will of voters by offering them money or gifts; Not to prevent journalists from performing their duties in accordance with the rules of their profession and the election rules; To publicize their election campaign expenditures within 10 days of election day; To respect the will of citizens expressed in the election if there are no major violations of the election process; During public presentations, to avoid statements that can be interpreted as a threat to other candidates or their supporters and to citizens of different nationalities or confessions.

4 In the Annex you can find the whole document of the Code of Conduct.


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After signing onto the Agreement, CDT monitored presidential candidates’ campaigns. The campaign passed in a peaceful atmosphere without strong confrontation between political parties and candidates. The opposition parties were accusing the ruling coalition of making a pressure and bribing the citizens to go for elections. CDT did not get concrete proofs from the citizens or political parties about these allegations. We pointed to the citizens' right to decide on their own whether they would go for elections or not and to whom candidate they would give their vote. We, also, reminded all the participants of the election contest that making any pressure on voters is considered to be a criminal act. In the period from 14 December 2002 to 12 February 2003 printed media published 66 articles about our activities. Presidential candidates, with the exception of Mihailo Marković and Ilija Darmanović, did not obey the provision of the Agreement, which refers to making public the funds spent in campaign within ten days of election day. 3.4. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 11 MAY 2003 Considering the fact that the President of Republic was not elected on 9 February, because of insufficient voters’ turnout, the new elections were called for 11 May 2003. Parliament of Montenegro, before calling for elections, passed the new Law on Election of the President of the Republic by consensus. Absence of obligation that on the polling stations 50 percent+1 citizen have to vote, increasing the number of signatures needed for candidacy as well as obligation that signatures for candidacy have to be signed in the MEC are some of the basic innovations incorporated in that law. After longer negotiations between the opposition parties, neither for these elections the strongest opposition coalition Together for changes had its presidential candidate. Apart form Filip Vujanović, the candidate of DPS and SDP and Dragan Hajduković the candidate of the group of citizens, who were also candidates in previous elections, the new presidential candidate was the political leader of LSCG Miodrag Živković. We estimate that so far the campaign has been conducted in a relatively acceptable atmosphere5. The fact that the coalition Together for Changes did not have its candidate diminished significantly the interest of citizens in the election contest. We have also the impression that, when presenting their programs, the candidates quite often present proposals and promises they say will be completed once they are elected that do not correspond to possibilities and authorities of the President of the Republic stipulated by the Constitution. After these elections also, not even one of the presidential candidates announced in the public funds spent in campaigning. This time also, CDT pointed out and reminded the candidates that it is their moral obligation towards the citizens who voted for them. We, also, highlighted that it is the practice in developed democratic countries. 3.5. ORGANISATION OF FIELDWORK

5 In the Annex you can find the public statement from 9 May 2003.


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Staff of the CDT headquarters in Podgorica coordinated the fieldwork of the regional and municipal coordinators. According to the project of parliamentary and presidential elections, the area of Montenegro was divided in six regions: Region 1: Podgorica, Danilovgrad, Cetinje, Kolašin coordinated by Ivana Stešević; Region 2: Nikšić, Šavnik, Žabljak, Plužuine coordinated by Vladimir Berkuljan; Region 3: Bijelo Polje, Pljevlja, Mojkovac. Regional coordinator is Draško Konjević; Region 4: Berane, Andrijevica, Rožaje, Plav coordinated by Nebojša Jovančević; Region 5: Budva, Bar, Ulcinj. Regional coordinator is Uglješa Vučinić: Region 6: Kotor, Tivat, Herceg Novi coordinated by Stanko Đuričić. Six regional coordinators coordinated in cooperation between the headquarters in Podgorica and regional offices. Regional coordinators communicated with 30 municipal coordinators, whose agenda was adjusted to the efficient implementation of PVT and to the high-quality coverage of the field6. 3.6. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 2002 During the preparation of the project the meeting with the regional coordinators, in which the strategy for the realization of the project was determined, was held in the CDT premises on 3 September 2002. Meetings with regional and municipal coordinators and detailed trainings on all the activities during the campaign were held in the NDI premises on 11 and 12 September. The coordinators got all the material needed for this project at these meetings. Recruiting of the observers was mostly realized through the fieldwork. Around 70% of the observers are the same ones who participated in the realization of the project “Local elections 2002” i.e. during the previous campaign of the citizens election monitoring. Training of observers Aware of the fact that recruiting the observers is likely the most important part of the project, and according to the changes of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives (LECR) we decided to significantly revise an existing manual for the election observers. Changes in the manual referred to the new provisions of the LECR.. The New Manual7 consists of three basic parts:

1. Electoral procedure – basic rules 2. Code of conduct of the observers during Election day Enclosure (legal basis of all

relevant issues) The Manual enabled coordinators and observers to be better informed about the changes in the Election Law. Working version of the Manual was available to some members of the REC, which assessed it positively.

6 In the Annex you can find the CDT’s detailed organizational scheme as well as the names and phone numbers of coordinators. 7 The content of the Manual is given in the Annex.


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We also prepared detailed plan of training for observers, in order to provide all the observers with the unique message no matter which part of Montenegro they come from. Training consisted of the following subjects: up-to-date experience of CDT, importance of independent observing of the elections, characteristics of the project «parliamentary elections 2002», presentation of the manual, detailed explanation of the electoral procedure, code of conduct of observers and the way of reporting. In the period from 13-18 October, staff of the CDT headquarters, in cooperation with regional and municipal coordinators, held 23 training sessions for observers from all the Montenegrin municipalities. According to our observers behavior on Election day we estimated that the training was successfully completed8. Election day During election day CDT had covered 90% of polling stations in all municipalities. 950 observers out of 1021 accredited observers were continuously on polling stations, while the rest of them were divided in mobile teams. Mobile teams visited, on the basis of detailed working plan, polling stations at least twice (before and after) and observed there around 20 minutes. Having in mind efficiency and accuracy of information that CDT main headquarter was getting, we estimate that this way of organizing proved to be successful.

The CDT headquarters in Podgorica was operating in the NDI premises. In accordance with the previous agreement all the information on Election day were flowing into main headquarters and were forwarded to the press team who was informing the public. Coordinator for electoral observers communicated with municipal coordinators every 120 minutes during the day (9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 h.), while in case of problems in polling stations the headquarters

was immediately informed. Thanks to detailed plans for visiting polling stations prepared by municipal coordinators, CDT headquarters was timely informed on important events in the polling stations in Montenegro. During the day, the municipal coordinators communicated all day long with observers who were not able to cover all the polling stations because of the disposition of the majority of Montenegrin municipalities. Upon the closure of election day, the observers handed in their reports to the municipal coordinators, who forwarded them to the regional coordinators, namely to the headquarters in Podgorica.

8 In the Annex we enclosed the detailed timetable of the trainings by municipalities.


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3.7. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 2002. The Sequence and topics of meetings with regional and municipal coordinators within the project of the presidential elections were similar to those of parliamentary elections. All the meetings were held by 7 December 2002. Detailed work plan for incoming elections was drafted during these meetings. Recruiting of the observers was mostly realized through the fieldwork. Around 90% of observers are the ones who participated in the realization of the previous project, i.e. in the previous campaign of citizens election monitoring. Training of observers Existing manual that was used for parliamentary elections was changed and adjusted to the provisions of the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic. We also held 23 training sessions following the same principles, in the period from 14-20 December 2002. According to our observers behavior on election day, we estimated that the training was successfully completed9. Election day CDT had covered over 85% of the polling stations in all municipalities with 831 accredited observers. Fieldwork and communication on election day were organized in the same way as for the parliamentary elections. 3.8. REPEATED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS – FEBRUARY 2003. In preparations for these elections, meetings were held only with the regional coordinators. Considering the fact that repeated presidential elections were treated as a part of one electoral process, all the observers were the same as for the previous elections, so there was no need for their additional education. Election day CDT had covered over 85% of the polling stations in all municipalities with 831 accredited observers. Fieldwork and communication on election day were organized in the same way as for the presidential elections.

9 In the Annex we enclosed the detailed timetable of the trainings by municipalities.


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44.. NNOOTTIICCEEDD IIRRRREEGGUULLAARRIITTIIEESS 4.1. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS Violation of the electoral procedure was noticed in certain number of polling stations. In the following text we give the review of the polling stations with the most significant violations: In few turns the Article 71a of the LECR was wrongly interpreted. Representatives of CDT even with the official interpretation of the REC were not allowed to take notes on the percentage of turnout, which was opposed to the mentioned interpretation. Namely, according to the decision of the REC, either taking notes or using the copies of the voters' register that refers to the identity of the voter is not allowed. This violation refers to ten polling stations in municipalities of Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, Berane and Kotor. In few polling stations members of the Polling Board were taking notes on voters’ identification (Podgorica, PS 79 – OŠ Pavle Rovinski, Podgorica PS 13A). There were also cases where the Polling Boards (PB) did not obey electoral procedure in a way that a member of the PB who was in charge of voters’ identification was crying out loudly the name of a voter (Podgorica, PS 1 – MZ Blok V, Nikšić, PS 7 – Sindikalni Dom). We think that in some cases, the Polling Boards did not obey the procedure of annulling the ballot papers in a case of public voting (Andrijevica, PS 22 – Trepča, Podgorica, PS 65A – Direction of Public Incomes) In polling station no. 98 – Dučice in Nikšić, after shorter discussion a representative of the Polling Board from SNP attacked the representative of DPS. After shorter fight situation was calmed down and voting was kept going in that polling station. PS 117 i 118 – Dragova Luka, Nikšić; nearby the polling station there was a group of people disturbing the work of the Polling Board and making unnecessary crowd during all day long. There was also DPS propaganda material nearby those polling stations. Kotor, PS 28 – Savina, Cultural Center, a voter whose name was not on the voters' register voted. Problems were noticed in around 2% out of the total number of polling stations. 4.2. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 22 DECEMBER 2002 According to the reports of our observers we can confirm that all noticed irregularities refer to the insignificant number of the polling stations, which means that they could not affect the election result. In few turns the Article 71a of the Law on the Election of Representatives and Councilors (LERC) was interpreted incorrectly, i.e. the CDT observers were not allowed to take evidence on


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the voters’ turnout. There were some cases when a member of the Polling Board in charge of voter’s identification called on his/her name loudly which represented violation of the legal procedure. Our observers also noticed enormously great numbers of requests for homebound voting at some polling stations. 4.3. REPEATED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 9 FEBRUARY 2003 The greatest problem identified during the election day was the extremely great number of requests for homebound voting. We believe that (apart form the bad weather conditions and damaged health conditions of some voters) this problem was also the result of misinterpretation of the REC statement issued on 7 February 2003: “It is not of the essential significance who is the person who submits the request to the Polling Board on behalf of a person who asks for homebound voting, but instead it is of importance that the person wants to vote and that the reasons he/she asks for homebound voting are in line with the following regulations….” During the election day CDT received insignificant number of serious written complaints about the pressure put on citizens in order to make them go for election. The received complaints partly referred either to submitting the requests for homebound voting of citizens who did not showed the interest in voting, or those who did not meet the conditions prescribed by the law. However, minor number of complaints referred to the pressure employers put on their employees in certain companies. If the allegations we received in written were correct we considered that those findings could infringe the regularity of these elections. According to the CDT information on repeated presidential elections, 74 polling stations all together where 6515 voters in total were registered were not opened, which is around 1,5% out of the total number of registered voters:

Municipality Number of PS that were not opened

Bijelo Polje 2 Žabljak 20 Nikšić 6 Plužine 21 Pljevlja 17Cetinje 1 Šavnik 7

We remind that according to the decision of the REC, the citizens who were registered in these polling stations had not voted at all because that could not affect the final turnout of the elections. In most municipalities the great number of requests for homebound voting was noticed. In the following table we are giving the review of the most interesting examples:

Municipality Number and name of PS Requests/letter %

Bijelo Polje 21 – Cerovo 159/50 31,5 Bijelo Polje 87 – OŠ Zminac 241/87 36 Bijelo Polje 85 – Resnik 2 837/117 13,98


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Cetinje 31 – Rijeka Crnojevića 326/27 8,28 Kolašin 26 – Dom Kulture Nalježići 282/18 6,38 Ulcinj 4 – Uljara 524/20 3,82 Tivat 16 – Gradiošnica 600/12 2 Danilovgrad 2 – Zapadni kvart 911/35 3,84 Podgorica 86 – 748/44 5,88 Podgorica 94 - 857/34 3,97

CDT will make detailed analysis on these irregularities after getting the official data from the REC. From the municipality of Danilovgrad we got three written statements that citizens did not submitted the requests for homebound voting although the members of the Polling Board visited them and told them that someone submitted request for them. In the same municipality also, in the polling station no. 25-Vrela there were 4 requests for homebound voting out of 69 registered voters. When members of the Polling Board, who were in charge of voting out of polling stations, came none of 4 citizens wanted to vote. 4.3. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 11 MAY CDT believes that so far the elections held on 11 May are the best-conducted elections from the aspect of respecting the legal procedures. The number of irregularities noticed during the election day was insignificant regarding its quantity and importance as well.


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55.. PPVVTT PVT is a method of election monitoring, which provides the independent data that could be used to anticipate the election results, or to overview the official election results. PVT is a part of the project, which was conducted within the campaign of citizens’ election monitoring. The goal of the project is unbiased gathering of the results from polling stations. Parallel gathering and processing of votes was conducted not only for the parliamentary elections in October 2002 but also for both rounds of presidential elections. Introduction PVT could not be used as the replacement for more strict election monitoring. The procedure of voting for the election law, monitoring and checking out the voters’ register, pre-election campaign, activities during the election day, activities after the elections; all these activities are important parts of the election process in which PVT does not interfere. However, the experiences from the countries in which the nongovernmental organizations conducted unbiased gathering of votes showed that PVT is a very powerful “weapon” for avoiding and detecting the election frauds. Methodology Regarding the number of the polling stations in Montenegro (1102) and the experiences from the previous elections, again this time CDT decided to use the strategy of partial gathering of votes from polling stations which were determined by the representative sample. 20% of polling stations were included in the sample and close to 25% of voters were registered in those polling stations. CDT was also gathering the results of all the parties/presidential candidates in the elections. Organizational structure PVT coordinator was in charge of establishing, organizing and implementation of the project. PVT coordinator cooperated with regional coordinators. Regional coordinators were in charge of recruiting, selecting and training of PVT observers. The programmer Vladimir Vencl from the Derby Informatics Company from Zagreb was engaged for software development, which supported editing and processing of data about voting. We cooperated with Ms Lisa Mc Lean, NDI, during the sample development, by including statistics methods in processing and interpreting of the results. Preparations Under the preparations for project conducting we consider the following:

Supply and installing of the informatics, communication and other equipment; Determining of the sample of the polling stations; Programming of the software’s support; Recruitment of volunteers Drafting the instructions for PVT observers; Drafting the forms for PVT observers; Training of PVT observers; Training of telephone operators in PVT center; Computer trainings of the operators in PVT center.

PVT center was placed in the NDI premises in Montenegro. Four telephone lines connected in PBX system were installed in PVT center. PBX system is telephone installation, which enables incoming calls to the unique number to be diverted to the first free line. Pedja Boljevic, the


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engineer from Telecom set up the system itself. Each observer could call the PVT center on four handsets and six cell phones. This way of gathering information was used in all the elections. Information-computer composition consisted of four computers connected to the local area network (LAN). The data could be checked and corrected on a notebook, which in every moment could display the current results and some statistics validators for estimation of the data stabilization and ratio of turnout and results. Software support should meet the following requests:

- Stability of the program - Integration of statistics formula and methods; - Simplicity in usage; - Network administration and reporting (presenting of the results);

Software was developed for functioning in 32 bites Microsoft Windows Operational System. Data editing was generated by ASP script (Active Server Pages). SQL server delivered the data to Microsoft Access 2000 Format, and the whole operation functioned in Windows NT Server. The same system was used in all the elections. The Sample was created in order to encompass 20 % of polling stations. After determining the number of the polling stations in the sample, the polling stations themselves were determined (by method of “casual representative sample”). All observers were trained. The training for telephone operators was held the day before elections in PVT center. The telephone operators had to be trained on reporting procedure. The reporting procedure was established in order to provide the protection and data accuracy. The computer operators were trained for editing the data in the computer system. As operators worked for parliamentary and presidential elections there was no need for the additional training. Organization of monitoring and reporting the elections form the beginning till the end was conducted by CDT in carefully planned way, without major problems and mistakes. Therefore, on the election night, a majority of reports of all observers and mobile teams was received in the CDT premises. 5.1. PARALLEL VOTE TABULATION (PVT) 20 OCTOBER 2002 CDT’s projection was done on the basis of the PVT method. CDT announced its projection at 22.00h, an hour after the closing of polling stations. PVT observers started sending the results from the polling stations immediately after finishing of the votes’ counting. From the smaller polling stations, the results started incoming even at 21.10. The computer operators were editing the data in the computer system till 23.30h. Parliamentary elections, 20 October 2002 Mandates gained in parliamentary elections held on 20 October 2002 (CDT’s projection and the official results of REC).


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Local elections in Podgorica and Tivat, 20 October 2002

P o d g o r i c a The name of the party CDT REC

"Podgorica for European Montenegro - Milo Đukanović"

27 27

"Together for changes", SNP-SNS-NS 20 20

" Montenegro can do it – Liberal Alliance of Montenegro”

3 3

Patriotic Coalition for Yugoslavia 2 2

T i v a t

The name of the party CDT REC "Tivat for European Montenegro” - Milo Đukanović 13 13 "Together for changes", SNP-SNS-NS 13 13 Liberal Alliance of Montenegro - "Tivat’s Liberals – of course!"

2 2

Croatian citizens initiative 4 4 5.2. PVT 22 December 2002 Considering the fact that parliamentary elections will be held soon (October), the meeting of all the CDT coordinator was organized in order to reach the final plan and the agreement. It was agreed that all observers should be contacted call in order to check how many of the previous observers would also be engaged this time. CDT’s effort in counting the votes was clearly successful. CDT was the first to report on the final turnout and election results. Furthermore, the results were almost perfectly accurate. Thanks to our PVT observers, phone-operators and data entry people, we faced Montenegrin citizens with a projection of election results at 22h. CDT announced that the election had failed. When


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compared to the official results we can say that our sample was good. The software functioned correctly so that we were able at any time to see the following:

• Percentage of turn out (also percentages in three regions North, Center and South) • Percentage for each candidate • List of observers who called and who didn’t call • On election day CDT worked with four operators for data entry and ten-phone operators.

CDT also put on-line results on the Internet after 21h. Voters registered: 456.981 Voted: 45, 87%

Candidate Number of votes %

Obrad Markonivć 1.747 0,83

Milan-Milo Radulović 3.115 1,49

Dragan Hajduković 12.319 5,88

Filip Vujanović 175.328 83,65

Milan Šparović 1.229 0.59

Milivoje Bakić 717 0,34

Ilija Darmanović 971 0,46

Mihailo-Milo Marković 437 0,21

Jovan Pejović 1.704 0,81

Aleksandar Vasilijević 6.448 3,08

Đorđije Milić 489 0,23 5.3. PVT 9 FEBRUARY 2003 On election day, CDT worked with four data entry volunteers and 10 telephone operators. We worked with volunteers and operators who worked during the previous February elections. We also offered information about the turn out several times through election day (at 10h, 14h, 16h, 18h30, 20h).

46.2

5.9

24.5

32.541.8

05

101520253035404550

10h 14h 16h 18h30 20h


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CDT also put the final projection on-line after 21h. During election day we have been also updating our web site with turnout information. Voters registered: 456.981 Voted: 47,50% Invalid ballots: around 3,5% (around 7.600 voters)

Candidate Number of votes %Obrad Marković 839 0,39

Milan-Milo Radulović 3.392 1,59

Dragan Hajduković 15.356 7,20

Filip Vujanović 174.429 81,84

Milan Šparović 870 0,41

Milivoje Bakić 769 0,36

Ilija Darmanović 833 0,39

Mihailo-Milo Marković 456 0,21

Jovan Pejović 1.097 0,51

Aleksandar Vasilijević 7.885 3,70

Đorđije Milić 278 0,13 5.3. PVT - May 2003

CDT informed the public on the voters’ turnout three times during election day. Fifty minutes after closing of polling stations, we presented the first preliminary results.

CDT enabled citizens to find out information on the current turnout by dialing 081 60 10 50. We believe that in this way we provided citizens to be easily informed on the course of the election procedure. The citizens were also given the possibility to inform about noticed irregularities.

For these elections, CDT also prepared a representative random sample of polling stations, which enabled us to obtain turnout results during the day and to have the first results of the elections soon after the closure of the polling stations. In order to perform this, we invited Vlado Vencl from Croatia (as we did previously) to provide us with his software and data analysis. We would like to note that, at the previous parliamentary and presidential elections, we also had the first results in Montenegro on the basis of a similar sample. At the presidential elections held on February 9, our results deviated only by 0.2%. CDT announced the results of the presidential elections around 21.45.


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46.5

47.5

48

45.5

46

46.5

47

47.5

48

48.5

December 2002 February 2003 May 2003

Register voters: 458.399 Voted: 48,4% (221.497 voters) Invalid ballot: 4.502 Valid ballots: 216.995

REC CDT CEMI & CESID

Filip Vujanović 64,2 % 63,8 % 63,3 %

Miodrag Živković 31,4 % 31,6 % 30,8 %

Dragan Hajduković 4,4 % 4,6 % 3,9 %

CDT enabled citizens to find out information on the current turnout by dialing 081 60 10 50 in intervals during which we collected data on the number of citizens who got to the polling stations. We believe that this was an efficient way for all interested citizens to be informed about election events. At the same time, the citizens had the opportunity to report all possible irregularities and suspicions related to the realization of the electoral process. We also provided the public with the information about turn out through Election day three times during the day (at 10h, 14h, 18h30).


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8.1

36

23

0

510

1520

2530

35

40

10h 14h 18h30

Results of Elections On-line

CDT also enabled all users of the Internet to track changes and processing of the election results directly on our website presentation. Furthermore, on our website users could also have access to the information on turnout, as well as any possible irregularities. CDT provided the citizens with this possibility in the last presidential elections and a great number of citizens visited our website during election day, as well as after the elections. We had more than 3,000 visits to the website and telephone calls.


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66.. RREECCOOMMMMEENNDDAATTIIOONNSS Despite its good general assessment, the Law has certain inaccuracies that need to be abolished or modified in order to improve the electoral process.

While monitoring political party campaigns and the atmosphere in general during the elelction day CDT faced with some of those examples. They reffered to the following:

• Pre-election silence should be defined more precisely, and violations and disturbances of the silence should be regulated by the Law;

• Provisions on the dismisall of polling boards should be reconsidred once more with the aim to made them more clear, and then to implement them according to the Law;

• More attantion should be paid to the education of the election commissions and polling boards. CDT noticed that with every new elections the level of education and knowledge of the election administration about problems of the election procedure was being increased. Nevertheless, we are of the opinion that the training of the election personnel needs to be organized regularly and not only in the pre-election period;

• The way of political party financing should be precised more clearly.

In our reports from previous elections we gave our comments and suggestions related to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives and the Law on Financing of Political Parties. We are pleased that the others are also of the opinion that the Law on Financing of Political Parties is not good enough, and that even its provisions (in this case Article 10) were not respected. The Political parties did not show readiness to accept out initiatives, thus in this report we are pointiong out to the lacks of current legal soltutinos.

In practice of some countries there are certain limits or bans reffering to taking part of some representatives of state institutinos or state organs in the pre-election campaign. With the aim of better separation of the state from the governing parties we believe that such election practice or legal legislation in Montenegro can contribute to conducting of fair and democratic elections. 6.1 Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives

Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives, adopted after the joint work of the most significant political subjects in the Republic, represents good legal document, which enable realization of fair election procedure. However, apart from the general assessment the Law has certain incorrectness, which with the aim of improving the election process should be removed or précised more clearly. In the following text you can find some of these assessments: MMAANNDDAATTEE OOFF MMEEMMBBEERRSS OOFF TTHHEE EEXXTTEENNDDEEDD CCOOMMPPOOSSIITTIIOONN OOFF TTHHEE EELLEECCTTIIOONN CCOOMMMMIISSSSIIOONNSS It is prescribed by the Law in Articles 26, paragraph 4, then Article 31, paragraph 4 and Article 36, paragraph 3 when mandate of a member of extended composition of the MEC or the REC commences but it is not clear when his/her mandate expires which should be precisely stated. It is stated in Article 14, paragraph 4 that the deadline for verification of mandates is 15 days from election day. Our opinion is that this legal provision should be modified in a way that


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verification of mandates should be done in prescribed term after the announcement of the final election results. EELLEECCTTOORRAALL LLIISSTT The Center for Democratic Transition also has serious remarks referring to the legislative possibility that political parties are allowed to make changes of mandates after the elections and select the half of the councilors from the entire composition of the submitted list. OCHE/ODHIR pointed out to this article in its critic assessment form 2nd August 2002. This provision allows an extremely non-democratic situation where the voters are not able to express their preferences toward their individual candidates (as in systems of “closed” lists), but on the other hand parties are enabled to create arbitrarily the composition of the parliament. In that way even the direct character of the election comes into question, because the party leadership act as mediators between voters’ will and their role in personalization of the parliament. In the comparative legislature there are two solutions for resolving this problem:

System “closed” list, where the submitters would be obliged to allocate the mandates according the order of the list.

System of “opened” list, where the voters themselves would be enabled to make the changes in offered order of the candidates.

AAUUTTHHOORRIIZZAATTIIOONN OOFF PPOOLLLLIINNGG BBOOAARRDDSS Our suggestions are also related to the Articles of the Law, which regulate dissolution of the Polling Boards and repeating of the electoral process (Articles 69; 70; 79; 81; 83; 89). We consider that some of these legal provisions are too strict and that they should be more realistic. The Polling Boards should have possibility to resolve certain irregularities during the electoral process. On the contrary, if they would strictly obey the legal provisions, which determine this issue, there would be possibility of making chaos in the polling stations caused by incorrect behavior of individuals or the group of people. (What will happen if a citizen votes publicly? If a polling station is not opened sharply at 8h but at 08: 10, should elections be repeated because of carelessness and improperness of individuals in particular polling station since these irregularities cannot significantly influence the result and regularity of elections?) RREEPPEEAATTEEDD EELLEECCTTIIOONNSS Provisions related to repeating of elections (Article 102) do not prescribe precise date of holding the elections, but include a possibility of conducting elections within the period of seven days. Is the same for citizens, if the elections are held the next day, in the middle of the week or on weekends? In most democratic countries, the Law with precisely determined date of elections specifies the conduct of repeated elections. PPRROOPPAAGGAANNDDAA MMAATTEERRIIAALLSS It is prescribed by Article 60 of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives that »Submitters of electoral lists and list of candidates on electoral list…can be exposed in public places determined by relevant municipal authorities without particular approval ». What will be the situation if political parties put up promotion material on non-allowed places and in that way ruin private or public property? Was any political party punished according to the Law for that reason during the last elections? TTHHEE CCOONNTTRROOLL CCOOUUPPOONN Article 82, paragraph 3 should also state clearly that voters have to divide control coupon from the ballot paper by themselves in the presence of a member of the Polling Board, and that only in certain cases could be helped by a member of the Polling Board selected by drawing lots.


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TTHHEE AALLLLOOCCAATTIIOONN OOFF MMAANNDDAATTEESS According to the method of allocation of seats prescribed by the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives, Articles 94, 94a, 95 CDT believes that these Articles need to be corrected in order to improve their accuracy, so to exclude any confusion and doubts related to the number of representatives. We support the tendency of state organs to enable more efficient level of participation of Albanian national parties through so-called “positive discrimination”, but we also suggest certain changes of the above-mentioned Articles in order to resolve dilemmas remained in one part of the political public. (Does Montenegro constitute one or two electoral units? Does the census for entering the Parliament is decided upon 72 or 77 MP’s at the places, which are not regulated by a specific parliamentary decision?) Therefore, CDT supports state organs in charge of conducting elections to do the following: - the REC should publicly announce the method of allocation of seats before the elections are held in order to eliminate possible complaints or confusions and to determine mathematically the way of spillover of the votes from one area to another and vice versa.

6.2. Law on Financing of Political Parties

The Center for Democratic Transition considers that not enough attention is paid to the implementation of the current Law on Financing of the Political Parties and that is necessary to pass a new law, which will efficiently regulate this issue. It is necessary to oblige the political parties by legal solutions not only to make their donations in public but also to pass strict rules on how donations could be used in financing of the political parties. In developed democracies financing of the political campaigns is fundamental issue, which determines fairness of the electoral contest. Some of democracies regulate this issue in a very strict way while in a case of Montenegro there is a Law that is not implemented in a proper way. The point and objective of passing the new law should be raising and personalization of political responsibility in parties. BBUUDDGGEETT FFIINNAANNCCIINNGG Are the citizens of Montenegro familiar with the funds provided for political parties from the republic budget, since they made it possible it by paying taxes? TTHHEE EEVVIIDDEENNCCEE OONN RREEVVEENNUUEESS AANNDD EEXXPPEENNDDIITTUURREESS According to the Articles 11 and 12, political parties are required to have detailed files on the revenues and expenditures. The competent bodies are able to audit financial operations of political parties. FFIINNAANNCCEE RREEPPOORRTT Through its previous experience CDT noticed that political parties upon completion of their campaigns did not fulfill their obligations to expose their financial report in public. We did not notice that political parties announced to the voters their financial plans for the funds received from the budget. It is disputable whether the funds received from the government can be sufficient for campaigning. If expenditures exceed the budget from the government, why don’t they announce the way of collecting the rest of the assets as it is done in developed democratic countries? It seems that the Law on financing of political parties presents an arbitrary document applicable only in the case of « the will of authority » according to the Articles 11 and 12. If we would like the citizens of Montenegro to obey the republican laws, it is necessary to require the same from the political parties, which want to represent them.


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We consider that the post election period is the best time to come up with the new solutions, which could be implemented, in the next elections.


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7. LETTER OF THANKS

At the end, with great pleasure we want to thank the institutions, organizations and individuals whose help was of high importance for the realization of this project. We express our special gratitude to NDI from Washington. Readiness of this donator to finance the project of citizens' monitoring of parliamentary and presidential elections in Montenegro 2002/2003 and provided support of their representatives was definitely of key importance for the realization of this project. We owe special gratitude to the NDI office in Podgorica and of course to Miss Lisa McLean for provided help and support during the work on the realization of the project. Her suggestions and willingness to help us at any time were of crucial importance. We also thank Misses Aleksandra Pajevic, Natasa Bulatovic, Ana Kovacevic, Marianne Goodwin, as well as Mr. Miroslav Scepanovic. We thank Mr. Vladimir Vencel for his technical support in the realization of PVT. We also thank the President of REC, Mr. Stevan Damjanovic and the presidents of MEC’s for understanding and cooperation.


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88.. AANNNNEEXX POLITICAL PARTY AGREEMENT ON THE RULES OF CONDUCT DURING THE CAMPAIGN FOR ELECTIONS ON 20 OCTOBER 2002

We believe that signing of the Code of Conduct prior to April elections in 2001 and local elections in May 2002 was a positive step toward development of democratic processes and cooperation among parties. With the aim of having fair and democratic elections, we decided to adopt changes and amendments to some of the provisions of this Agreement prior to the parliamentary elections and local elections (in Podgorica and Tivat), which will be held on October 20, 2002. Freedom of political campaigning in accordance with the law and democratic norms is one of the most important aspects that influence the development of democratic processes. Every party has the right to promote their political principles and ideas. Of course, activities and actions of every political subject carry a certain level of responsibility to ensure that their content will not jeopardize rights of other parties. The participants in the elections who have signed onto this Code of Conduct have agreed to direct their activities toward further development of fair and democratic principles. According to this charter, each party is obliged to take responsibility for actions of its candidates and activists.

The political parties who have signed onto this agreement have accepted and agreed to the following:

I TOLERANT RELATIONS

A. INTER PARTY RELATIONS

• The political parties will respect the rights of other political subjects to participate freely in the election contest.

• Political parties who have signed onto this agreement will not influence negatively republic and municipal election organs for the purposes of advancing their own political objectives during the election campaign.

• During public presentations, parties are obliged to avoid statements that can be interpreted as a threat to other parties or their supporters, as well as to refrain from giving information that is not supported by precise evidence in an effort to discredit or defame their political opponents.

B RELATIONS WITH THE PUBLIC

• During the election campaign, parties are forbidden to spread any form of intolerance or hatred toward citizens of different nationalities or confessions.

• The political parties, candidates and activists will not influence the electoral will of voters by offering them money, gifts or any kind of benefits.

• The political parties are obliged not to blackmail or intimidate voters in any way, especially by threatening to fire or move them to another job position.

• Parties must not prevent journalists from performing their duties in accordance with the rules of their profession and election rules and with the aim of objectively and correctly informing citizens.


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II RESPECT OF THE PROCEDURE AND LEGISLATION IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

• All parties should consider it a responsibility to educate supporters and members about respect for the election procedure and the secret ballot, as well as about the provisions of this agreement.

• The political parties and their candidates will provide all necessary assistance to members of election boards and commissions in order to secure respect for voters’ rights.

• The funds from the Republic and Municipal budgets, which are not allocated by the Law, as well as funds and services of public enterprises and institutions, must not be used for the purposes of any individual party.

• Political parties shall publicize their election campaign expenditures within 10 days of Election day.

III PROPER PROPAGANDA AND ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC MEETINGS

• The activists from each party must respect public and private property. Therefore, they are not allowed to post propaganda materials or paint graffiti in non-designated places.

• Parties who have signed onto this agreement condemn in advance possible printing and distributing of anonymous propaganda materials, especially of those that incite political, national or religious intolerance, or those with a shameless content and inferences.

• The political parties, candidates and activists will not disrupt public gatherings nor destroy propaganda materials of the opposing parties.

• All political parties should try to avoid arrangements involving public gatherings at the same time and in the same place or in nearby areas. If such a conflict of time and place should arise, leaders of the parties should cooperate in good faith to find a reasonable accommodation.

• Parties are especially obliged to instruct their supporters and members that no weapon may be brought to any public gathering, voting place or nearby area.

IV RESPECT FOR THE ELECTORAL WILL OF THE CITIZENS

• All political subjects participating in the elections are obliged to respect the will of the citizens expressed in the election if there were no major violations of the election process.

V JOINT COMMITTEE

• In the interest of building trust building between political parties, party representatives who signed this Code are obliged to participate in meetings in order to review the implementation of the foreseen agreement.

• Signatories of the agreement invite NDI, the organization that cooperates with all parliamentary political parties, to chair these meetings. We also invite the Center for Democratic Transition, a nonpartisan organization that monitors the electoral process, to inform political parties about the violations of the signed agreement.

• The work of the committee will be regulated by the rules and regulations. PRESS STATEMENT OF THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION


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The joint committee for monitoring the pre-election campaign held today its last meeting before the elections. It is noted that the campaign in the last 10 days is conducted in an atmosphere that can be characterized as positive.

The Center for Democratic Transition criticized the event in Niksic on October 14, just before the beginning of the pre-election meeting of the Liberal Alliance (LSCG), when certain individuals physically attacked one citizen from Niksic. CDT expresses its regret because of this event. We believe that violence should not be part of a pre-election campaign and there is no justification for this type of behavior. We would like to emphasize that a representative of the Municipal Board of Liberal Alliance in Niksic informed us that, according to his allegation, DPS activists – backed up by State Security – damaged all the LS propaganda material on the night before the LSCG meeting. CDT sought an explanation of the event from the Municipal Board of DPS Niksic but, in the memorandum that we received, the allegations of the Liberal Alliance are not denied. The representatives of DPS Niksic commented on the work of the Municipal Government and the lack of designated areas for putting up propaganda materials. We believe that it is unacceptable to damage propaganda materials of political opponents and note that this act represents a violation of the signed Code. We also criticize the events in Berane where the physical clash of SNP-DPS activists happened due to uncontrolled and unacceptable posting of pre-election materials. We invite Municipal Boards of those parties to influence their activists so that similar events are not repeated.

In the last week, the Center for Democratic Transition noticed that, in the majority of Montenegrin municipalities, anonymous propaganda materials with accusing and insulting content were distributed and posted. We would like to emphasis that it is obvious to CDT and the citizens who are the authors of these unsigned posters. We are surprised that they have no political courage to sign these posters considering that they use much worse vocabulary in their pre-election presentations. Our opinion is that this type of political campaign is unacceptable and clearly emphasizes the lack of culture on the political scene. We would like to point out that only in the municipalities of Bijelo Polje and Podgorica have the municipal services done everything they could to protect buildings from excessive posturing. We emphasize that putting up posters, particularly on traffic signs, damages public property and endanger the security of all drivers and that the citizens as taxpayers will have to pay for it at the end of the day.

The Municipal Board of NS in Zabljak informs CDT that, on the evening of October 15, unknown persons broke windows of the party headquarters. We insist that Municipal Security in Zabljak inform the public about this event as soon as possible.

During the course of the pre-election campaign, the Center for Democratic Transition has monitored the work of the Republic and Municipal Election Commissions up until now. On the day of the elections (October 20), we will observe the course of the electoral procedures at more than 90% of the polling stations with more than 1,000 monitors. We emphasize that during election day, CDT will organize press conferences in the NDI office and inform the public in a timely manner about any irregularities. Furthermore, after closing the polling stations, CDT will announce the projection of the preliminary results of the parliamentary and local elections in Podgorica and Tivat. The results will be given based on use of the PVT method. We would like to mention that our PVT results for the previous parliamentary and local elections were precise, and we are convinced that again this time we will be the first who would inform the Montenegrin public about the election results.

Podgorica, 21.5.2007.


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POLITICAL PARTIES COMMERCIALS IN DAILY NEWSPAPERS Democratic coalition for

European Montenegro DPS-SDP

Coalition “Together for changes”

Prices for publishing

Vijesti 15 ∗ 1/1 pages; 6 ∗ ½ pages; 6 ∗ ¼ pages

No advertisements 1/1 - 767 €; ½ - 409 €; ¼ - 230 €

Glas Crnogoraca

13 1/1 pages 1/1 - 170 €

Pobjeda 2 ∗ 1/1 pages; 3 ∗ ½ pages; 1 ∗ ¼ pages

No advertisements 1/1 - 537 €; ½ - 268 €; ¼ - 153 €

Publika 7∗1/1 pages; 4∗ ½ pages; 4∗ ¼ pages; 3∗1/8 pages;

No advertisements 1/1 - 300 €; ½ - 170 €; ¼ - 90 €; 1/8 - 50€

ADVERTISING VIDEO CLIPS ON PRIVATE TELEVISIONS IN PERIOD FROM 12h TILL 24h Democratic

coalition for European

Montenegro DPS-SDP

Coalition “Together

for changes”

Patriotic coalition for Yugoslavia

Liberal alliance of

Montenegro

Price for broadcasting for a second

NTV Montena 14 452 sec 5880 sec 3618 sec 1860 sec TV Elmag 6168 sec 36 488 sec 7200 sec 4020 sec From 1,60€ to

30 € depending on time and type of propaganda

message TV IN 9434 sec 2786 sec From 10€ to 30€

BILLBOARDS Democratic list for European Montenegro was the only one that had billboards. According to our data this coalition had 60 billboards in total. Price for one billboard is around 350€ depending on the location and

type. NOTE: The Center for Democratic Transition delivered only information collected on number of advertisements in printed media and on seconds of advertising video clips and broadcasts that parties had on private TV stations. We also announced official prices of these services. CDT does not have information that some of media gave special discounts to the parties apart from the prices that were in the price list and how much these discounts were. Following the same principle we also announced the information regarding billboards.

Podgorica, 8, November 2002 AGREEMENT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR A FAIR CAMPAIGN

(Presidential elections on 22 December 2002 and 9 February 2003) We believe that respect of the rights of other political subjects to freely participate in the

election competition and to state their political programs are the basis for further development of the democratic processes. We decided to adopt some of the provisions of this Agreement as our contributions to the fair and proper atmosphere at the upcoming presidential elections on December 22, 2002.

Freedom of political campaigning in accordance with the law and democratic norms is one of the most important aspects that influence the development of democratic processes. Of course, activities and actions of every political subject carry a certain level of responsibility to ensure that their content will not jeopardize the rights of other participants.

The participants in the elections who have signed onto this Code of Conduct have agreed to direct their activities toward further development of fair and democratic principles. According


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to this charter, each candidate is obliged to take responsibility for his own actions and his activists.

o During public presentations, candidates are obliged to avoid statements that can be interpreted as a threat to other candidates or their supporters and to citizens of different nationalities or confessions, as well as to refrain from giving information that is not supported by precise evidence in an effort to discredit or defame political opponents. All signatories of this document condemn in advance possible printing and distributing of anonymous propaganda materials with the above-mentioned content.

o The political candidates and their activists will not influence the electoral will of voters by offering them money, gifts or any kind of benefits and also will not blackmail or intimidate voters in any way, especially by threatening to fire or move them to another job position.

o The activists of each candidate must respect public and private property. Therefore, they are not allowed to post propaganda materials or paint graffiti in non-designated places. The candidates, their parties and activists will not disrupt public gatherings nor destroy propaganda materials of the opposing parties.

o Parties and presidential candidates must not prevent journalists from performing their duties in accordance with the rules of their profession and the election rules and with the aim of objectively and correctly informing citizens.

o Presidential candidates are obliged by this Code to publicize their election campaign expenditures within 10 days of election day.

o All political subjects participating in the elections are obliged to respect the will of the citizens expressed in the election if there were no major violations of the election process.

PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION

The Center for Democratic Transition will monitor the regularity of the electoral process

with its monitors and mobile teams throughout the Republic as it did during the previous elections. CDT has 700 accredited monitors. We will inform the public about voter turnout three times during election day and, an hour after the closing of the polling stations, we will announce the first preliminary results.

PVT Method - The Fastest Election Results

For these elections, CDT also prepared a representative random sample of polling stations, which will enable us to obtain during the day results of the turnout and to have soon after the closure of the polling stations the first results of the elections. We would like to remind that, at the previous parliamentary and presidential elections, we had the first results in Montenegro on the basis of a similar sample. At the presidential elections held on February 9, our results deviated by only 0.2%. CDT will announce the results of the presidential elections around 22.00. Throughout the day, we will make comparisons with the turnout from the previous elections.

INFORMATION ABOUT TURNOUT AND RESULTS VIA TELEPHONE

CDT will enable citizens to find out information on the current turnout by dialing 081 60 10 50 in intervals during which we will collect data on the number of citizens who got to the polling stations. We believe that this is an efficient way for all interested citizens to be informed


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about election events. At the same time, the citizens will have the opportunity to report all possible irregularities and suspicions related to the realization of the electoral process.

ELECTION RESULTS ON-LINE ON THE INTERNET

CDT will also enable all users of the Internet to track changes and processing of the election results directly on our website presentation www.cdtmn.org. Also, on our website, users can have access to the information on turnout, as well as any possible irregularities. CDT provided this possibility to citizens on the last presidential elections and a great number of citizens visited our website during election day, as well as after the elections.

COOPERATION WITH THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE (NDI)

To our satisfaction during these elections, CDT continues its very intensive cooperation and partnership with the National Democratic Institute from Washington, the organization that works to strengthen democracy throughout the world. With USAID resources, this organization funded this project. On election day, CDT will have its PVT and media center based at the NDI offices in Beogradska Street 42.

LAW ON ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

CDT believes that the amended Law on Election of the President of the Republic

provides certain preconditions for elections to be held in a democratic atmosphere. We assess that the amended parts of the Law concerning the election threshold, penalties and necessary support to presidential candidates will enhance the electoral procedure. We also welcome the fact this act was adopted by consensus between all political parties. However, this time as well as many times before, it is worrying that political parties have not demonstrated readiness to legally regulate a very important issue that has a great impact on the regularity of elections, i.e., financing of the campaigns of the presidential candidates. The current law does not stipulate an obligation of a candidate to make public funds spent in the campaign, as well as the sources of those funds. We consider this to be a serious shortcoming of the law. We are especially worried that all parties accepted this shortcoming related to campaign financing. The money flows in a campaign, which is precisely defined by the Law are made maximally transparent, and represent the most sensitive issue in countries of western democracies.

EVALUATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

We estimate that so far the campaign has been conducted in a relatively acceptable atmosphere. The fact that the coalition Together for Changes does not have its candidate diminished significantly the interest of citizens in the election match. We assess that, in the last several days, the campaign of the candidates included incorrect verbal treatments through media presentations and party releases. Unfortunately, this is a negative tradition of election processes in Montenegro. The reason lies in the fact that the atmosphere in which presidential candidates run a positive campaign, present their attitudes, programs, activities that they will fulfill in case they are elected and do not deal with things done by his/her political opponents has not become mature enough.


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Also, we have the impression that, when presenting their programs, the candidates quite often present proposals and promises they say will be completed once they are elected that do not correspond to possibilities and authorities of the president of the Republic stipulated by the Constitution. Podgorica, 9 May 2003

CONTENT OF THE OBSEREVER MANUAL FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELELCTIONS

INTRODUCTION I ELECTION PROCEDURE 1. POLLING BOARD 2. ELECTORAL MATERIAL 3. POLLING STATIONS AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 4. PREPARATIONS FOR OPENING OF THE POLLING STATION 5. VOTING PROCEDURE 6. IMPORTANT CHANGES OF THE LAW ON THE ELECTION OF THE COUNCILORS AND REPRESENTATIVES CONNECTED TO “SAFE VOTE” AND REFFERING TO ELECTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC 7. VOTING UNDER SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES Help during voting Voting out of the polling station 8. SITUATIONS THAT SHOULD BE RECORDED IN THE RECORD OF THE WORK OF THE POLLING BOARD BEFORE CLOSING OF THE POLLING STATION AND COUNTING OF VOTES

9. CLOSING OF THE POLLING STATION AND COUNTING OF VOTES 10. REASONS FOR DISSOLUTION OF THE POLLING BOARD II GUIDELINES FOR OBSERVERS ON ELECTION DAY 1. CODE OF CONDUCT 2. GUIDELINES FOR MONITORING AND REPORTING III APPENDIX

Right on monitoring the elections Administrative structure of the elections

The Republican Election Commission (REC) The municipal Elections Commissions (MEC)

Voters Our ID card

CONTENT OF THE OBSERVERS MANUAL FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS I ELECTION PROCEDURE 1. POLLING BOARD 2. ELECTORAL MATERIAL 3. POLLING STATIONS AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 4. PREPARATIONS FOR OPENING OF THE POLLING STATION 5. VOTING PROCEDURE


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6. IMPORTANT CHANGES OF THE LAW ON THE ELECTIONS OF THE COUNCILORS AND REPRESENTATIVES CONNECTED TO “SAFE VOTE” AND REFFERING TO ELECTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC 7. VOTING UNDER SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES Help during voting Voting out of the polling station 8. SITUATIONS THAT SHOULD BE RECORDED IN THE RECORD OF THE WORK OF THE POLLING BOARD BEFORE CLOSING OF THE POLLING STATION AND COUNTING OF VOTES

9. CLOSING OF POLLING STATION AND COUNTING OF VOTES 10. REASONS FOR DISSOLUTION OF POLLING BOARD II GUIDELINES FOR OBSERVERS ON ELECTION DAY 1. CODE OF CONDUCT 2. GUIDELINES FOR MONITORING AND REPORTING III APPENDIX

Right on monitoring the elections Administrative structure of the elections

The Republican Election Commission (REC) The municipal Elections Commissions (MEC)

Voters Our ID card TRAINING OF OBSERVERS – PARLAMENTARY ELECTIONS Date/ Municipality

13.10. SUNDAY

14.10. MONDAY

15.10. TUESDAY

16.10. WENSDAY

17.10. THURSDAY

18.10. FRIDAY

REGION 1 Podgorica Aleksandar

PajevićAleksandar Pajević

Raško Konjević

Kolašin Aleksandar Pajević

Cetinje Aleksandar Pajević

Danilovgrad Aleksandar Pajević

REGION 2 Nikšić Dragan

Koprivica Plužine Dragan

Koprivica

Šavnik Dragan Koprivica

Žabljak Dragan


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Koprivica REGION 3 Pljevlja Marko

Čanović

Bijelo Polje Raško Konjević

Mojkovac Marko Čanović REGION 4 Berane Raško Konjević Andrijevica Raško Konjević Rožaje Damir

Rašketić

Plav Damir Rašketić

REGION 5 Bar Damir Rašketić Ulcinj Damir

Rašketić

Budva Raško Konjević

REGION 6 Kotor Raško

Konjević

Tivat Marko Čanović

Herceg Novi

Marko Čanović

TRAINING OF OBSERVERS – PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Date

Municipality

14.12. SATURDAY

15.12. SUNDAY

16.12. MONDAY

17.12. TUESDAY

18.12. WENSDAY

19.12. THURSDAY

20.12. FRIDAY

REGION 1 ******** ******** ******* ****** ****** ****** ******** Podgorica Aleksandar

Pajević Aleksandar Pajević

Raško Konjević

Kolašin Aleksandar Pajević

Cetinje Aleksandar Pajević

Danilovgrad Aleksandar Pajević

REGION 2 ******** ******** ******* ****** ****** ****** ******* Nikšić Dragan

Koprivica Plužine Dragan

Koprivica

Šavnik Dragan Koprivica

Žabljak Dragan Koprivica

REGION 3 ******** ******* ******* ****** ****** ****** ******** Pljevlja Marko

Čanović i Dragan Koprivica


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Bijelo Polje Raško Konjević

Mojkovac Marko Čanović i Dragan Koprivica

REGION 4 ******** ******** ******* ****** ****** ****** ******** Berane Raško

Konjević

Andrijevica Raško Konjević

Rožaje Damir Rašketić

Plav

Damir Rašketić

REGION 5 ******** ******** ******* ****** ****** ****** ******** Bar Damir

Rašketić Ulcinj Damir

Rašketić Budva Raško

Konjević REGION 6 ******** ******** ******* ****** ****** ****** ******** Kotor Raško

Konjević Tivat

Marko Čanović

Herceg Novi Marko Čanović


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POSTER – VOTING PROCEDURE

1. If your polling station is...

2. ...a member of the Polling Board with the UV light machine confirmes that you did not...

3. ...ID card, driving license or passport confirms your identity...

4. ... a member of the Polling Board puts the Invisible ink on the forfinger of your right hand...

5. ...after taking the ballot paper, you are signing into the Electors Book...

6. ...you vote exclusively in a polling booth (behind the screen)...

7. ...after you folded the ballot paper regularly in the booth (behind the screen), a member of the Polling Board removes the control coupon from it...

8. ...you are putting the ballot paper into the ballot box...

9. ...immediately after voting you are leaving your polling station...

Elections Report, Elections in Montenegro, October 2002 – May 2003

Documents

Transcript of Elections Report, Elections in Montenegro, October 2002 – May 2003