Paragraph 60

 

In line with its Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, the Commission considers decisive that introducing at this stage major new rules would undermine the legitimacy of the referendum.[22] The issue of a referendum on the independence of Montenegro is not a new one. As set forth above, in 1992 there was a referendum in favour of Montenegro forming a renewed Federal Republic of Yugoslavia together with other Republics willing to do so. The political forces favouring the independence of Montenegro did not accept the results of this referendum as final and gained ground following the break between the Government of Montenegro and the Miloševi? regime in Serbia. When the Commission examined the constitutional situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 2001, there was already a fully-fledged debate on the referendum, including the question of who would be entitled to vote in it. Under such circumstances, any change in the voting rules made now will be regarded as motivated by the desired consequences for the result of the referendum and should be avoided. In particular, it is essential that the voters’ lists are reliable. Any attempt to add at the present stage more than 260.000 persons living outside Montenegro to these lists could only undermine the credibility and reliability of the voters’ lists.