Podgorica, (MINA) - In Montenegro, more than 241,000 citizens are registered with incomplete addresses, which significantly hampers the accuracy and reliability of the electoral roll, the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) announced.

State Secretary at the MUP, Novica Obradovic, said that the Working Group for Electoral Roll Control analyzed data regarding the accuracy of addresses of persons listed in the electoral roll and identified a significant number of citizens with incomplete addresses.

“An analysis of information submitted by the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro found that at the state level, as many as 241,252 persons are registered with incomplete addresses, which significantly undermines the accuracy and reliability of the electoral roll”, said Obradovic in a statement submitted to the MINA News Agency.

He explained that the largest number of persons registered without a house or apartment number was recorded in Podgorica, where as many as 30,178 citizens have incomplete addresses.

Obradovic pointed out that in order to solve this problem, the Working Group conducted further activities in cooperation with the Union of Municipalities and the Ministry of Public Administration, noting that more than 200,000 citizens have unknown or incomplete addresses.

“It was established that the role of the MUP is technical in nature and relates to data entry, while local governments are exclusively responsible for decisions on street names and building numbering. At the same time, it was found that a significant number of municipalities have not fully fulfilled these legal obligations”, Obradovic explained.

He said that the Ministry of Public Administration, as a supervisory authority, initiated misdemeanor proceedings against local governments.

“However, those procedures did not produce the expected results, given that the current legislation does not clearly define a responsible person who would bear accountability for inaction”, Obradovic added.

He said that in order to overcome these limitations, the Ministry of Public Administration is considering the Proposal for a new Law on Local Governments, which would define responsibilities and improve the implementation of legal obligations at the local level.