At the meeting of the Working Group for monitoring the election campaign for the parliamentary and local elections in five municipalities, which will be held on 30 August 2020, it was stated that the activities of the Agency and the prescribed duties of the entities subject to the law were implemented in accordance with the Control and Supervision Plan from the day of calling the elections.

The meeting of the Working Group was also attended by Mr Momčilo Radulović, President of the APC Council, as well as Ms Biljana Pejović, the representative of the non-governmental organization Center for Democratic Transition - CDT.

The representatives of the Agency pointed out that the institution would strictly and fully implement all its competencies prescribed by the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, whose aim is to strengthen the integrity of campaign through comprehensive control of financing of political entities and responsible use of public resources.

It was also stated that the Agency was carrying out a large number of activities related to the control of the election process and that until then it had registered 1,015 entities subject to the law, who had submitted about 7,700 reports containing analytical cards on social welfare benefits and budget spending, travel orders, etc. Among the submitted documents, there are also 194 Decisions on payments from the budgetary reserve, which the Agency controlled and published on its website. Following the control of the received documentation, the Agency issued 203 warnings to the entities subject to the law, as well as 35 opinions and more than 140 pieces of legal advice at the request of the authorities.

It was pointed out that until then, 10 political entities had opened accounts for the election campaign and all of them had submitted fifteen-day reports to the Agency, in which there had been no reported financial contributions for the election campaign.

So far, the Agency has initiated 31 administrative procedures upon reports concerning the fulfillment of obligations prescribed by the Law on Control of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, as well as nine ex officio procedures. Field controls of the entities subject to the law have been planned, and their schedule and dynamics will be the subject of careful analysis, taking into account the current epidemiological situation in Montenegro.

When it comes to PR activities, the info material was prepared with obligations, restrictions and prohibitions for the authorities, which was published on the website and accounts of the Agency on social networks. The info material of the Agency on the topic of election campaign control was inserted in all daily newspapers.

Mr Momčilo Radulović, President of the APC Council, pointed out that the Council would pay special attention to the activities of the Agency in the field of control of financing the election campaign, as the priority of the work of the Agency in that period, and that it would also provide all necessary support to the Agency in carrying out its competences during the campaign.

Ms Biljana Pejović, the representative of the CDT stated that that non-governmental organization would monitor the work of the Agency and the State Election Commission in order to support the work of those two institutions, and that it would pay special attention to preventing possible abuse of public resources and submitting reports in case of suspicion of such abuse.

The continuation of cooperation between the Agency and interested non-governmental organizations during the campaign has been announced, and the next meeting of the Working Group is scheduled for 27 July 2020.