The second round of presidential elections in Montenegro was held in compliance with general democratic standards and principles, while election day passed peacefully and without major irregularities that could threaten the legitimacy of the entire election process. Irregularities in the work of lower levels of election administration, noted misuse of state resources and party employment, unbalanced media coverage, with religious community interference in the election process, as well as certain forms of external interference, are negative characteristics of the overall election process.

This was announced at the press conference of the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) on the occasion of the presentation of the Report on preliminary findings and conclusions "Citizen monitoring of elections - Presidential elections of Montenegro 2023".

The head of the mission, Ana Nenezic, said that the election day passed in a peaceful atmosphere, and that the nature and scope of the irregularities did not threaten the regularity of the overall election process in the second round of the presidential elections.

"The elections were conducted without major problems in the organization, while the fundamental rights of candidates and voters, to freely present their programs, that is, to exercise their right to vote, were mostly respected," said Nenezic.

She pointed out that the elections were held according to the rules of the unreformed set of electoral laws, which contain numerous legal gaps, ambiguities and collisions of legal norms that open up space for their abuse and reduce efficiency.

"The second round of presidential elections in Montenegro was held for the first time in the last 20 years. This fact caused that the electoral legislation does not contain regulations that precisely prescribe the procedure for the second round of presidential elections. In order to conduct the election procedure, the general provisions of the valid election laws were applied, along with part of the decisions made by the State Election Commission (SEC). This additionally confirms the repeatedly repeated assessment that it is necessary to urgently implement a comprehensive reform of election laws and election administration," said Nenezic.

She pointed out that the inappropriate interference of religious communities, that is, the SPC, during the election process was also a feature of the second round.

"We are of the opinion that in a secular state, religious communities must refrain from publicly expressing their views on individual candidates and influencing voters. As this practice is repeated, we believe that it is necessary to legislate the mentioned limitation", said Nenezic.

She also pointed out that CeMI believes that the right of Montenegrin citizens to exercise their right to vote cannot be disputed due to the disorderly administration and the inability of the competent institutions to fulfill all obligations prescribed by law in a timely manner.

Election administration analyst and SEC observer, Vladimir Simonovic, said that the election enforcement authorities, for the most part, efficiently conducted the election preparations and respected most of the legal deadlines within the second round of the presidential elections.

"Although the overall election process was basically transparent, CeMI, as well as other domestic and international observation missions, were not involved in the work of the institutions and authorities for the implementation of the election process, and had limited insight into the process and the accompanying documents election process. We believe that observation missions should be included, from preparatory election actions to the conclusion of the election process, in order to ensure full transparency and contribute to full information of the citizens about all the details of the election process," said Simonovic.

He pointed out that the SEC did not ensure full transparency of its work even in this election process, as well as the "live" transmission of sessions via the Internet, which is the practice of many countries in the world.

"The part of the SEC that should be especially praised are the members selected in the competition, and the Expert Service of the SEC, which showed a high level of professionalism and openness to cooperation with non-governmental organizations," Simonovic said.

 "CeMI believes that the right of Montenegrin citizens to exercise their right to vote cannot be disputed due to the disorderly administration and the inability of the competent institutions to fulfill all obligations prescribed by law in a timely manner," Simonovic said.

Legal analyst, Ognjen Mitrovic, said that the voter list was closed at the beginning of the election process and that changes were not possible.

"542,154 voters were registered in the final voter list, who voted at 1,162 polling stations. "However, with imprecise communication with the public, at the moment between the two election rounds, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) caused confusion by announcing that the voter list had been amended and supplemented with around 1,500 newly registered voters," said Mitrovic.

Although this information referred to the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for June 11, 2023, as he added, the MUP did not show proactivity and corrected or denied the given information, which created unnecessary confusion among the interested public.

"The inaccurate and unupdated register of residence maintained by the MUP, which is in part a consequence of the imprecisely prescribed obligation of Montenegrin citizens to register their residence, opened up the question of the legality of diaspora voting, regional and international, in the second round of presidential elections," Mitrovic said.

Political campaign financing analyst at the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), Milos Vukanovic, pointed out that the legal framework for financing parties and election campaigns, and the abuse of state resources, as well as the prescribed control powers of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (AKA), must be improved , because they do not provide a basis for the implementation of essential control.

"Although the candidates submitted their reports in time between the two rounds of presidential elections, the fact that the accuracy of the data is determined solely on the basis of the data presented in the report itself, represents a significant limitation that must be overcome," said Vukanovic.

Speaking about compliance with the prescribed deadline for submitting candidates' reports to APC, Vukanovic said that the candidates submitted the required reports within the prescribed period.

"182 procedures or controls were initiated ex officio, that is, 71 based on submitted complaints." A total of 166 activities by 83 service providers were recorded," said Vukanovic.

He pointed out that during the election cycle, a particularly high rate of employment of persons in the public sector was noted.

"Thus, during the period of the campaign, more precisely until March 31, the APC noted 6,968 contracts regulating labor relations, rights and obligations of civil servants and state employees, and contractual relations, which were concluded during the election campaign period. APC did not issue a conclusion on the legality of the mentioned contracts," said Vukanovic.

He said that although foreign financing was legally prohibited, there were numerous indications that it existed in practice.

"However, the unimplemented legal framework does not leave room, nor does it prescribe clear mechanisms for competent institutions, for detailed verification and determination of facts," added Vukanovic.

The deputy head of the mission, Maja Milikic, said that foreign interference in the Montenegrin election process was evident both through media activity and through activities on social networks.

"The media environment is competitive, with a large number of registered media, and the public broadcaster complied with the legal prerequisites and offered balanced coverage of the campaign. The high concentration of foreign capital in the Montenegrin media affected the unbalanced presentation of candidates in the private media," stated Milikic.

She pointed out that holding a debate on the RTCG public service, between two presidential candidates, is a significant step forward and in line with international standards.

In this way, the citizens had the opportunity to receive all the necessary information in a direct confrontation between the candidates so that they could make an informed decision," said Milikic.

The PR coordinator of CeMI, Maja Bjelic, pointed out that the campaign was competitive, but emphatically negative, with a large number of accusations between the candidates, but also focused on promises about the economic prosperity of the country and the acceleration of the European integration process.

"When it comes to election silence, the propaganda of political parties through social networks came to the fore. The most important reason for this is the inconsistency of the solutions in the relevant laws, i.e. "The Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament (election propaganda lasts until 24 hours before the day of the election) and the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns (election propaganda lasts until the day of the election)," said Bjelic.

She pointed out that there is a noticeable increase in hidden advertising, that is, promotional activities without legally prescribed features.

"Based on projections, on the basis of a sample, CEMI came out at 20:00 and 20 minutes with an estimate that the winner of the second round is Jakov Milatovic who won 60 percent, against the opponent, former president Milo Djukanovic with 40 percent of the votes won. The final projections were published shortly after 9:00 p.m. and there were no significant changes compared to the first published projections," Bjelic reminded.

The project "Civic monitoring of presidential elections in Montenegro 2023" was made possible by the British Embassy Podgorica.