Home > 1.2 Equal suffrage > MONTENEGRO - Urgent Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on Elections of Members of Parliament and Councillors
 
 
 
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Paragraph 62
 

Articles 80 and 81 of the draft law give submitters of the candidate list and candidates the right to organise conferences and other public meetings as well as the right to prepare propaganda material and to display and post it during the period of media presentation. As the right to freedom of assembly is guaranteed in Article 52 of the Constitution of Montenegro and the right to freedom of expression is guaranteed in Article 47 of the Constitution, the notion developed by these draft provisions remains unclear. With regard to the fundamental rights at stake, Articles 80 and 81 of the draft law can be understood only as a display of rights already guaranteed in the Constitution; or as limitations of the rights to freedom of expression and of assembly for all persons who are not “submitters” during the period of media presentation which would amount to a violation of these rights; or as imposing additional obligations on submitters when exercising their right to organise conferences and other public meetings as well as the right to prepare propaganda material and to display and post it during the period of media presentation, i.e. to provide translation into sign language and to provide propaganda material in a format accessible to disabled persons. As Articles 80 and 81 touch upon the exercise of political rights in pre-election time, their substance would benefit from further clarification.