Research examining public confidence in elections in Montenegro has shown that in 2023 58 per cent of people thought elections were free and fair as compared to 47 per cent in 2022. 32 per cent of citizens believe that electoral reform in Montenegro is needed, while almost a half of them (46%) is of the opinion that electoral reform needs to be implemented urgently.

These are some of the findings of the survey "Building transparent and inclusive elections in Montenegro", commissioned by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and conducted by the Damar Agency on a representative national sample of 1,200 respondents conducted in 2023 following the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The report shows that 6 in 10 people think the commissioners in the State Election Commission (SEC) should not be affiliated to political parties and 68.9 per cent said political parties have influence over the commissioners in SEC and municipal electoral commissions.

The research also found that 31 per cent of voters are generally satisfied with the voting process, slightly higher than in 2022, when 26 per cent of voters said they were satisfied. As the SEC and the Mission have jointly conducted voter education campaings in 2023, the number of respondents said that they were not sufficielntly informed on how the voting process works fell from 41 per cent in 2021 to 21 pre cent in 2023.

Three quarters of respondents are still of the opinion that hate speech and electoral fraud remain as problems. A majority of respondents (70 per cent) believe that barriers to disabled people's political participation are an issue.

"Work is now needed to ensure public confidence in elections continues to grow. Electoral reform committee will play a key role in achieving this through implementing f ODIHR's recommendations issued last December," said Head of Mission Dominique Waag.

SEC chair Nikola Mugoša thanked the Mission for tracking public attitudes towards different aspects of elections. "State Election Commission stands ready to work with Parliament's Electoral Reform Committee to improve electoral legislation and to ensure that public confidence in elections continues to grow," said Mugoša.