According to the data of the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), 21.4 percent of registered voters voted on the presidential elections in Montenegro by 11 am.
The CeMI PR Coordinator, Maja Bjelic, said that by 11 am in the southern region voted 18.5 percent of voters, in the central region 23.3 percent and in the northern region 20.7 percent.
“By 11 am, 23.2 percent of voters voted in Podgorica, in Niksic 26.1 percent, in Bar 17.9 percent, in Bijelo Polje 22.3 percent.“, Bjelic said.
She said that the turnout in the first round of the presidential elections was 20.1 percent by 11 am, on the presidential elections in 2018 by 11 am it was 18.5 present and on the parliamentary elections in 2020 it was 35.4 percent.
She also pointed out that since the last report there have been additional 36 reported irregularities.
"At the polling station 6 in Bar, the president of the polling station limits access to information on the voting process to the CeMI observer. This activity violates the Article 111a of the Law which guarantees the right of the authorised observers of domestic NGOs registered for monitoring of exercising political freedoms and rights to monitor the election process and the work of election bodies.", Bjelic said.
She also stated that at the polling station B3 in Podgorica it has been reported that a voter gave the ID document, and a member of the Electoral Committee wrote the data from the ID document on a separate piece of paper.
"This activity violates the Article 71a par. 2 of the Law which states that, during the election process, it is forbidden to the members of the Electoral Committee as well as to persons monitoring the work of election bodies to keep any records on voters that have voted, as well as to use copies of the voter list or of any other additional voter records", said Bjelic.
She pointed out that observers and citizens report a regular and frequent use of mobile phones at the polling stations, as well as of photographing of ballot papers, which, as she explained, violates the directives of electoral secrecy from the Article 69a and the Article 71a of the Law which prohibits the use of electronic communication devices in the voting premises.
"There are repeated reports that the access to polling stations for persons with disabilities is inadequate, as well as the irregularities related to saying voters' names aloud with their registration number in the voter list. At the polling station 17 in Podgorica there has been and incident between two persons, after which the police and the ambulance intervened. The conflict was not related to the election process.", Bjelic said.
She called for the citizens to report the noticed irregularities to the CeMI legal team, on the phone number 020 511 513, via the application Fer izbori available in Play store and on the website www.ferizbori.me.
The processed data related to the turnout in the election day, voting trends, estimation of results after closing of polling stations, CEMI shall, during the day, announce to the public via: regular live press conferences on CeMI You Tube channel, websites www.ferizbori.me and www.izbori.cemi.org.me, official social network profiles, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as Radio Television of Montenegro, TV Vijesti and TvE, which will broadcast live the CeMI press conferences.
The project “Civil monitoring of presidential elections in Montenegro in 2023“ was enabled by the British Embassy in Podgorica.
