Montenegro State Election Commission Chair meets municipal electoral commissions
A delegation led by Aleksa Ivanović, Chair of the State Election Commission, and including Darko Brajović, National Programme Officer at the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, met with representatives of municipal election commissions. The meetings aimed to review election readiness, voting procedures, accessibility of polling stations, and new challenges in administering elections during the pandemic.
With parliamentary elections set for 30 August 2020, the discussions were held in Podgorica, Nikšić, Bar, Tivat, Bijelo Polje, Berane, Andrijevica and Mojkovac from 16 to 25 June 2020.
The Chair of the State Election Commission, Aleksa Ivanović, emphasised that: “One of the essential matters prior, during and after an election is for election management bodies to be transparent.” He invited municipal election commissions to regularly post all relevant documents on their websites.
Municipal commissions welcomed the guidance provided by the State Election Commission and expressed frustration with the tendency of political parties to appoint polling station staff only few days before an election, hindering the opportunity for them to be trained on election administration.
Nikola Mugoša, legal advisor at the State Election Commission said that quality training workshops for polling station staff are the key to administering fair elections. He suggested that the municipal commissions should start to liaise with political parties and invite them to appoint polling station staff as early as possible, in order for staff to receive training on how to administer elections.
The Chair of the State Election Commission explained how his Commission is collaborating with the Association of Youth with Disabilities and Montenegro Union of the Blind and inviting the municipal commissions to ensure that their polling stations are accessible for persons with disabilities. Darko Brajović, National Programme Officer at the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, added that municipal commissions should work to eliminate obstacles that discourage and prevent persons with disabilities from voting independently.