polling board minutes, if referenced by the complainant) was affirmed by the Administrative Court in 2017.38 Transparency Insufficient transparency, especially at the local level, has been identified as a major issue in electoral disputes. This is unsurprising, since some local authorities publish little information online other than basic facts concerning elections, which makes it very difficult if not of outright impossible to find information about objections and related rulings. Here, regional or global best practices should be drawn on to create binding guidelines for local electoral commissions that would include lists of documents that must be made public (primary and secondary legislation, decisions, calendars, electoral lists, summaries of electoral commission meeting records, election results, and the like) and the time limits for doing so, with particular emphasis on the need to regularly publish objections and their Transparency of the outcomes. For instance, in July 2020 the State Electoral Commission of electoral dispute Montenegro adopted its Administrative Instructions for online publication resolution process before electoral of materials by the State Electoral Commission and municipal electoral commissions must be commissions, which govern the release of these documents, improved, particularly at responsibilities of officers to be given the task of updating this the local level. information, resolution of any issues, and training for responsible individuals.39 By contrast, the REC greatly improved its transparency in the latest election (of 2020) by making nearly all of its sittings open to the public. In addition to allowing both Serbian and foreign election monitors to attend the meetings, in this election it streamed its sittings live for the first time on its web site and YouTube channel. That said, the REC lost much of this transparency (and efficiency) after Election Day, as a (perhaps expected) amendment to its Rules of Procedure permitted the Commissioners to vote on agenda items by responding to online messages with ‘For’, ‘Against’, or ‘Abstain’ within three hours of delivery. This voting method was used to make decisions, without public scrutiny, on both objections received by the REC and final election results. 4.1.2.2. Administrative Court General rules The LEMP permits appeals to be lodged against any ruling of the REC. The Administrative Court is responsible for reviewing these appeals (Art. 97). Judicial relief before the Administrative Court in disputes concerning parliamentary elections, as well as in Judgment of the Administrative Court No. Už 29/17 of 9 April 2017. Administrativno uputstvo za objavljivanje materijala na veb sajtu Državne izborne komisije i veb stranicama opštinskih izbornih komisija, Državna izborna komisija Crne Gore, 2020. Available at dik.co.me/wpcontent/uploads/2020/07/Administrativno-uputstvo-web-site.pdf. 38 39 30

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