MANS today filed a criminal charges to a Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime and Corruption against several unidentified people from the Democratic Party of Socialists with suspicion that during the last election in Berane they brutally broke the Law on Election of Members of the Parliament and councilors, and committed more criminal acts against the electoral law.
The criminal charge was filed after MANS’s Research Center came into possession of the documentation which was confiscated on the day of the election in Berane from one of the headquarters of DPS in Berane. An integral part of that documentation was so-called “manual” which was distributed to the members of the municipal board of DPS with instructions on how and where to report information about what is happening at the polling place.
In a short guide what MANS obtained procedures are explained for reporting information on the total number of voters, and those who vote for DPS and determines the dynamic answering phones in the Municipality Board DPS’s in Berane. The first answer was scheduled immediately after the opening of polling stations, then at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 7pm during election day. The last answer was scheduled after closing of the polling stations and counting of all ballots.
In addition to the schedule of the terms in which the members of the municipal board must report their data to their headquarters, in the manual there was a list of 4 cell phone numbers on which that had to be done, 067/820-270, 067/820-221, 067/820- 442 and 067/820-330 and one land line 051 235 824.
The manual done in this way and given to activists of DPS in Berane, according to which they are bound to regularly report and notify to their party about the number of voters for that party in election, is contrary to the Constitution and the Law on Election of Members of the Parliament and councilors, and all who participated in the creation of such practice have committed criminal acts punished by the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
The Constitution of Montenegro in the Article 45 provides that the elections are free and direct, and voting is secret which in details elaborates and the Law on Election of Members of the Parliament and councilor, so there is no way that DPS know who are those who voted for that party, except if they do not violate the Constitution and the Law, and using coercion forced people to give them that information after voting, or if the vote was already purchased before coming at the polling place. Any recognition of the voters’ political preference at the polling place is a serious violation of the secrecy of the vote and freedom of choice.
In addition, the Law on Election of Members of the Parliament and councilor with the Article 71a prohibits keeping any kind of records of voters on election day, and precisely states that ” to the members of the electoral board and people who follow the work of the election is prohibited, at the polling place, to keep any kind of records of voters who have voted, and the use of copies of the electoral roll or any other additional evidence about voters”. In practice this means that the DPS should not have any kind of information about who voted, precisely first and last name, but can have, as other parties, the total number of voters, on the basis of the official documentation kept by the electoral committee.
In fact, the only evidence that is admissible during voting is the one that officially is kept by the electoral committee, and that is the record from the electoral roll that citizens sign during voting. Based on that evidence, the electoral committee can only notify the election commission on the total number of voters, without any information who are those who voted and who they voted for.
Because of all this, there is no legal way under which DPS can know first and last names of those who votes, and especially not who from those people voted for the ruling party.
The Law on Election of Members of the Parliament and councilor with Article 115 provides fine or imprisonment up to one year for all of those who, after the election, hold the voter accountable for voting, or request from the voter to say his/her choice, or why did not vote. If this offense is committed by the member of election commission, the election committee, or other person while performing duty in connection with elections, will be punished specifically with imprisonment of three months to three years.
Finally, the Criminal Code of Montenegro, Article 191 relating to the violation of the secrecy of voting, prescribes fines up to six months imprisonment for the person who violates the secrecy of the vote, while the sentence is up two years in prison if that is done by a member of the electoral committee.
Having in mind that the manual by the DPS given to activists on the field opposite to the Montenegrin applicable regulations, and directly invites to the violation of the secrecy of the vote, we invite the prosecution to urgently initiate an investigation against individuals who delivered these information to the party, and against individuals who collected information. Montenegrin prosecution office has available a number of mechanisms to determine who are individuals who broke the Law, since the numbers provided for report of collected information are integral part of the manual of DPS.
MANS
