Details

Regional conference of constitutional courts on voting rights in Montenegro

Published: March 2, 2016

From 14 to 16 February 2016, a regional conference on the "judicial review of elections and voting regulations" was held by the IRZ and the Constitutional Court of Montenegro in Budva, Montenegro. The conference was attended by constitutional judges from the host country, as well as from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. The topic for this event was chosen because of the parliamentary elections, which are due to be held in both Montenegro and Macedonia in 2016. This conference will therefore be followed up in April by another seminar on the same subject to be held at the Judicial Academy of Macedonia.

The speakers at the event held in Montenegro were Dr. Dieter Hömig, a former judge at the German Constitutional Court and the German-speaking judge at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, Dr. Vojtěch Šimíček. They introduced the relevant German and Czech regulations and case law relating to these regulations.

Other speakers at the event were Elena Goševa, President of the Constitutional Court of Macedonia, Mirsad Ceman, President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jadranka Sovdat, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia and Constitutional Judges Dr. Marko Babić and Mato Arlović from Croatia, Dr. Dragoljub Drašković from Montenegro and Predrag Ćetković from Serbia.

The purpose of the conference was to review elections and voting regulations. For the latter, it was pointed out, for example, that the Constitutional Court of Montenegro has in the past already overturned various voting regulations. One example of these is the rule stipulating that a party that had already been represented in parliament previously no longer had to produce supporting signatures for a new candidature. Another example concerns the regulation according to which support for the application of a presidential candidate had to be declared personally by two members of the election committee.

Following on from the intense professional part of the conference, a ceremony was held to mark Constitutional Court Day, with contributions from Minister of Justice, Zoran Pažin, and German Ambassador, Gudrun Steinacker, which highlighted the importance of the regional conference.