The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) is putting forward suggestions aimed at improving the Proposal for the Law Amending the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament (LECM), which was submitted to Parliament by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
Although the Comprehensive Electoral Reform Committee (the Committee) ultimately fell short of its goals, we remain committed to our mission in society by providing our perspective on the legislative proposals that were within the Committee’s remit, and on the procedure for their potential adoption.
However, it is crucial to emphasize that the CDT’s engagement in this public discussion is not to be mistaken for our endorsement of a quasi-electoral reform driven by a flood of partisan legislative proposals designed for scoring political points, as it cannot replace the serious and diligent work that was required of the Committee, which, regrettably, manifested only in rare and brief intervals.
On the contrary, we are expressing deep concern over this process. Should political actors persist with such political tactics, it could lead to a very dangerous outcome: a failure to amend LECM which requires a two-thirds majority, while laws requiring only a simple majority would be amended unilaterally, such as the Law on the Voter Register, the Law on Registers of Permanent and Temporary Residence, the Law on Citizenship, and the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns. Given Montenegrin Parliament’s track record of insufficient transparency in legislative procedures to date, there is a distinct possibility that the ruling majority may unilaterally amend key electoral laws by bypassing public consultations and democratic standards, and tailoring election rules to serve partisan interests, securing an unfair advantage in the run-up to the elections. This would undoubtedly create a highly unfavorable environment right before parliamentary and general local elections.
In principle, the DPS proposal is a synthesis of different recommendations that have been coming from the public sphere, largely based on the assumed introduction of semi-open lists, a model that enables voters to support a party slate while also casting preferential votes for individual candidates on the list. We believe that, given the current political climate, this is the right first step to take, which would over time lead toward the introduction of fully open lists, where voters can directly select all 81 Members of Parliament from the candidate
pool, with adjustments permitted only to uphold the principles of gender equality and affirmative action.
We have structured our recommendations into three key groups: first, the omission of critical amendments that are vital for the legislation to achieve its full purpose and foster a more open and democratic electoral environment; second, the lack of robust safeguards for gender equality and other ambiguous provisions that leave room for potential abuse; and third, proposal for solutions that we believe could be regulated with a much higher standard of legal quality.
Full publication is available here.
CDT Team