In the parliamentary elections in Montenegro, 5.8 percent of voters voted by 9 am, the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) announced.
The Head of the Legal Department of CeMI, Ognjen Mitrović, said that in the southern region, 5.6 percent of voters had voted by 9 a.m., 6.3 percent in the central region, and 5.1 percent in the northern region.
Speaking about the comparative data, Mitrović said that the turnout in the first round of the presidential elections by 9 a.m. was 6.6 percent, in the 2020 parliamentary election it was 14.7 percent and in the 2016 parliamentary election it was 6.7 percent.
"In the first two hours from the opening of polling stations, a total of ten reports were submitted to CeMI, out of which one was for a significant irregularity. It is a violation of the provisions on the secrecy of voting from Article 69a and a violation of Article 71a of the Law on Election of Councillors and MPs by a voter taking a photo of his ID card and the ballot. We call on the citizens to respect the secrecy of the vote and on the polling boards to sanction every case like this one by making the ballot invalid," Mitrović pointed out.
He pointed out that at some polling stations there were minor delays of the commencement of the election process due to technical problems, which is not unusual for the beginning of an election day.
"We call upon the citizens to report any observed irregularities to the legal team of CeMI on the phone number 020 511 513, or using the Fair Elections application, which is available in the play store and on the website www.ferizbori.me. Following the report, our legal team will process any irregularity and inform the media and the entire public about it through social networks and other channels, and call the competent authorities to account," Mitrović said.
He announced that throughout the election day CeMI will inform the public of the processed data related to citizen turnout, voting trends and assessment of results after the closing of polling stations, through regular press conferences broadcast live through CeMI's You Tube channel, Facebook and Instagram pages, and also on websites www.ferizbori.me and www.izbori.cemi.org.me, official profiles on social networks Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as through RTCG, TV Vijesti, TvE and other television stations that broadcast live coverage of press conferences.
For the purpose of monitoring of the parliamentary elections, CeMi has accredited 1,218 observers who are deployed throughout the territory of Montenegro. The project "Civil monitoring of parliamentary elections in Montenegro 2023" was made possible by the British Embassy in Podgorica.
