At the outset, ODIHR and the Venice Commission welcome Montenegro’s efforts to amend its legal and institutional framework relating to parliamentary elections and elections of councillors, to bring it into compliance with relevant OSCE commitments, Council of Europe and other international human rights’ norms and standards as well as good practices. Overall, the draft represents an improvement in the legal framework governing elections and addresses a number of prior ODIHR, PACE and Venice Commission recommendations. Improvements relate inter alia to the dropping of legal competency requirements for suffrage rights; the lowering of the number of signatures required in support of lists of candidates; gender representation; information to be made accessible to persons with disabilities; banning persons with political responsibilities from applying to CEC membership; the requirement to adopt a Code of Ethics for election administration bodies.