Podgorica, (MINA) – The issue of the integrity of the electoral registry and registry of residence needs to be more visibly included in the EU negotiations process, the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) assessed and warned that these issues, due to voter migration and complex citizenship regimes in the region, have potential to become a wider European challenge in the future.

In the conclusions of its publication “Case Study – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia: Balkan Quadrilateral: Voter Migration and Electoral Registry Borders”, the CDT has stated that the organized voter migration in the region affects the integrity of the electoral process.

The CDT warned that the coordinated registration of residence or the mobilization of voters outside their actual place of residence with the aim of influencing election results is increasingly becoming a factor in political crises, disputes between states and violation of trust in the electoral process.

This NGO recalled that in the region, in previous years, several initiatives had been launched to establish mechanisms for the exchange of voter registration and residence data between the countries of the Western Balkans, with the aim of preventing multiple voting and abuse of electoral lists.

“However, most of those initiatives remained at the level of political declarations and expert recommendations, without political will to exchange data on citizens and voters”, CDT said.

According to them, if Montenegro were to become an EU member soon without resolving these issues, the question would also arise regarding whether citizens of countries that are not EU members, such as Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, could through existing ties directly influence the election of Montenegro’s representatives in the European Parliament.

“Therefore, the issue of the integrity of the voter and residence registry must be more visibly present in the EU accession negotiations, especially in regard to the rule of law and the functioning of democratic institutions”, the CDT emphasized.