The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) is contemplating notifying the prosecutor’s office about findings suggesting that certain voters from Trebinje may have been able to vote in Nikšić, despite the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) labeling these assertions from the main opposition party as mere speculation.

According to two sources within the DPS who spoke to “Vijesti,” there are indications that the list of “double voters” includes individuals not only from Trebinje but also from various other cities in the Republika Srpska (RS).

A party source reported that approximately 700 individuals from Trebinje, Bileća, Foča, and Gacko participated in the previous elections in Nikšić, which took place in March 2021, when the local DPS administration was dismissed and a new coalition government was formed by the former Democratic Front (DF), the Democrats, and the Civic Movement (GP) URA.

This same source indicated that 2020 individuals from Serbia voted in those elections, as well as during the parliamentary elections held six months earlier, at the end of August, where the DPS lost governmental power.

However, the source also noted that they will only be processing information related to Trebinje for the time being.

“We have indications for other areas, but we cannot proceed with them until we have full confirmation… Our goal is to identify as many individuals as possible who verified their vote in both the RS and Montenegro, and to present those lists to the relevant authorities. What action they take is their responsibility. They should definitely handle it ex officio,” he stated.

The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office (ODT) in Podgorica informed “Vijesti” in late February that it had concluded there were no grounds for criminal prosecution concerning the list of “double voters” that the DPS submitted to the police in the previous fall, ahead of elections in the capital.

Andrija Nikolić, the Head of the DPS Parliamentary Group, announced on Sunday that over 200 individuals from Trebinje were registered on the voter list in Nikšić, affirming that “they will not permit the opposition’s victory in the upcoming local elections to be disputed.” The elections in Nikšić are scheduled for April 13th.

He urged the Ministry of Interior to disclose how many “double voters” from RS and Serbia have been identified in Nikšić and Herceg Novi, where voting is also set for Sunday, and how many improperly registered voters have been removed from the voter rolls.

They are submitting the list to the Ministry of Interior today.

“Vijesti” inquired with the Ministry of Interior about the identification of voters from RS and Serbia in Nikšić and Herceg Novi, specifically asking how many had been registered and whether they had been removed. Rather than addressing these questions, the Ministry of Interior released a statement asserting that Nikolić’s claims were speculative, meant for short-term electoral impact.

“The fact that this claim, or speculation, remains unsupported by evidence speaks volumes about its validity. This speculation is reminiscent of similar claims from the same source on the eve of the election day in Podgorica on September 29th last year,” the Ministry observed.

They recalled that at that time, DPS President Danijel Zivkovic had submitted a list 12 hours before the election day to the Podgorica Security Center, “with 1,910 individuals who purported to exercise their voting rights across three countries.”

Initially, as they stated, the DPS’s announced list was reduced from 3,300 to 2,300, and subsequently from 2,300 to 1,910 individuals. Following a detailed check by their officials, it was determined that 1,905 out of those 1,910 persons were already on the voter list when the DPS was in power, meaning that not a single individual from the submitted list had been registered during the current government’s mandate.

“At that time, the public was left without a response regarding whether this indicated a form of admission of voter list falsification, especially since individuals on the list had been registered under the DPS administrations, yet they claimed that the voter list was reliable, accurate, and current,” they added.

They concluded that “this statement, which lacks foundational evidence, mirrors last September’s claims and serves only short-term electoral interests.”

In response, Andrija Nikolić stated that ‘the Ministry of Interior has actively participated in promoting the election campaign for the parliamentary majority.’

He announced on the “Iks” platform that he would be presenting a list of over 200 voters “who simultaneously exercise their right to vote in Nikšić and Trebinje” to the Ministry of the Interior today.

For the upcoming elections in Nikšić, there are 57,589 voters registered on the voter list—1,244 fewer than in the previous local elections of 2021, and 123 more than in the national elections of 2023.

The voter count for the parliamentary elections in Nikšić was 57,466, and for the local elections in March 2021, it was 58,833.

Last week, the Ministry of Interior finalized the voter lists in preparation for local elections in two municipalities.

Since the announcement of the elections, 109 new voters in Nikšić and Herceg Novi

Between the announcement of local elections on January 2 and the closing of the voter list on April 2, a total of 109 new voters were registered in Nikšić and Herceg Novi, according to data received by “Vijesti” from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Of these, 94 were registered in Nikšić and 15 in Herceg Novi.

In the same period last year, the Ministry reported that the number of changes in residence in Nikšić was 49, and in Herceg Novi, it was 20. This year, that number has increased, although there were no local elections during that timeframe.

“From January 22, 2023, to April 2, 2023, the number of reported changes of residence in Nikšić was 174, while for Herceg Novi, it was 29 during the same period,” stated the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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