According to data from the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), 60.5% of citizens voted in the presidential elections by 19h, the organization announced.
CeMI's PR coordinator, Maja Bjelic, said that 65.5 percent of citizens voted in the central region, 52.8 percent in the southern region, and 60.8 percent in the northern region by 19h.
"If we look back at previous elections, the turnout in the presidential elections in 2018 by 19 o'clock was 58.6 percent, in the parliamentary elections in 2020 74.9 percent, and in the parliamentary elections in 2016, 71.6 percent," said Bjelic.
In speaking about key irregularities, Bjelic said that the polling station 39-A in Podgorica the polling board opened the ballot box for voting by letter before the polling station closed.
„This violated the rules on voting by letter (item 6) which stipulate that the polling board opens the portable ballot box after the polling station has closed and determines the number of ballots contained in the portable ballot box in a way that does not violate the secrecy of the vote.“
She said that an irregularity related to the incompleteness of the polling board was reported on several occasions, which is contrary to Article 72 of the Law, which stipulates that, while the polling station is open and voting is in progress, all members of the polling board or their deputies must be present at the polling station.
"Now we will move on to indicative statistics, which we have collected from our observers in the form of a survey. These data show that in 73.4 percent of cases the president of the polling board is a man, while in 26.6 percent it is a woman. When it comes to templates for people with impaired vision, our observers obtained data that these were provided in 77.4 percent of cases, 13.2 percent witnesses lack of templates, while the answer I don't know was recorded in 9.34 percent of cases," said Bjelic.
She said that web sites www.ferizbori.me and www.izbori.cemi.org.me will publish preliminary results projections, while RTVCG, Vijesti and TVE have access to CeMI's data base in real time all starting from 20h.
The mission of civil monitoring of the presidential elections in Montenegro in 2023 is implemented with the support of the British Embassy in Podgorica.
"I remind you that the average deviation of CeMI's election results estimates compared to those published by the State Election Commission during previous years was significantly lower than the statistically acceptable deviation of +/-1%, so stay with us as we will announce the evaluation of the election day and the preliminary election results projections at 20 hours and 45 minutes", concluded Bjelic.