CeMI’s PR coordinator, Maja Bjelic, said that, when speaking about the regions, the turnout was as follows:

• Podgorica 70,9 %
• South 69,6%
• North 63,9%

“In the parliamentary elections held in 2016, the turnout by 17 PM was 61.2%, which is 7.2% less than today’s turnout. In the 2012 elections, the turnout was 55.9%, which is 12.5% less than today” said Bjelic.

According to her words, 550 irregularities have been received so far, 471 out of which do not refer to non-compliance with NCB recommendations related to decreasing of the epidemiological risk, while 79 irregularities refer to that in particular.

“Comparing the data on reported irregularities that do not relate to violations of the NCB recommendations, the data are as follows:

During the previous elections, CeMI received a total of 110 irregularities reports, which is 361 less than the number of irregularities reported today. Out of the total of 550 reported irregularities, 35 percent were reported by citizens, and 65 percent by CeMI observers, “said Bjelic.

According to the pieces of information CeMI’s observers are providing from the field, a large number of citizens are noticed not to respect the recommendations of the NCB on keeping physical distance, especially when it comes to waiting in line in front of the PSs.

“We appeal to the citizens to keep physical distance both in queues in front and inside the polling stations” said Bjelic.

For the sake of the specific example here are some irregularities that happened:

Polling station 114, Niksic municipality, Faculty of Sports

During identification, voters are not asked to take off their masks and show their faces in order to determine that the person who is voting is indeed the person from the ID card. This is contrary to the Technical Recommendations in the area of arrangement and epidemiological protection of the polling station.

Polling station 24, Elementary school “Milija Nikcevic”

The voter did not fold the ballot properly, i.e. she left her voting choice visible. Although members of the polling board warned her and demanded that she return to the voting booth to correct it, she did not do so, but in front of the ballot box. The ballot was not declared invalid. This way, the voter violated the secrecy of the ballot, Article 69A paragraph 1 of the Law on Election of Councilors and MPs. The polling board did not act correctly as they did not make the ballot invalid.

Polling station 74, Podgorica municipality, Elementary school “Oktoih”

The voter took out his phone to take a picture of the ballot. The ballot was annulled. This way, the voter violated the secrecy of the ballot, Article 69A paragraph 1 of the Law on Election of Councilors and MPs. The polling board acted correctly as it made the ballot invalid.

The right to vote in Montenegro pertains to 540,026 citizens, who vote at a total of 1,217 polling stations.

CeMI observes the parliamentary and local elections in five municipalities, for which it accredited 1,355 observers deployed at almost all polling stations in Montenegro.

The Center for Monitoring and Research – CeMI will communicate the processed turnout data during the election day, voting trends, assessment of the results after the closing of polling stations to the public through regular press conferences and media presentations. The websites to follow are:  www.izbori.cemi.org.me, www.ferizbori.me, www.cemi.org.me, www.prcentar.me

The project of monitoring the parliamentary and local elections was supported by the British Embassy in Podgorica, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade.