Montenegro parliamentary elections 2020: OSCE/ODIHR limited election observation mission final report

The 2020 parliamentary elections in Montenegro were competitive, and took place in an environment highly polarized over issues of church and national identity. Contestants were able to convey their messages but the ruling party gained an undue advantage through misuse of office and state resources, and dominant media coverage.

These are some of the main conclusions from the final report on Montenegro’s parliamentary elections of 30 August 2020, published on 11 December 2020 by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

Recommendations

The report provides 23 recommendations to improve the conduct of elections and bring them fully in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards. Key recommendations include:

• carrying out a comprehensive reform to harmonize the electoral legal framework and regulate all key aspects of the elections
• implementing clear, consistent, timely and fully implementable decisions within the mandate of the State Election Commission
• reviewing the legal capacity and residency requirements for voting and standing for election
• introducing effective and proportionate sanctions, and an explicit obligation of the oversight body to identify and publish the information on inaccuracies, including unreported incomes and expenditures
• reviewing provisions on challenging and invalidation of election, and prescribing that decisions on preliminary results may be appealed, including to the Constitutional Court
• considering additional measures to achieve balanced representation of women and men holding publicly elected positions

ODIHR deployed a Limited Election Observation Mission (LEOM) on 4 August 2020 to observe the parliamentary elections. All 57 countries across the OSCE region have formally committed to follow up promptly on ODIHR’s election assessments and recommendations.