Centre for Civic Education (CCE) calls on the Rectorate of the University of Montenegro (UoM) and the management of the Faculty of Political Science (FPN) to urgently examine the legality and regularity of today’s election for the student commissioner at FPN.
CCE has been contacted by students raising serious concerns about irregularities in the organisation of this process. According to their claims, the elections were not publicly and transparently announced in advance. Specifically, there was no announcement on the Faculty’s website, the Student Council’s website, the social media channels through which students are typically informed, nor on the official notice boards of the institution. Furthermore, no clear and publicly available deadline for submitting candidacies was set, effectively denying students the opportunity to be informed in a timely manner and to potentially run as candidates.
Students state that they were informed about the election only one day in advance, through Viber groups used by students in specific study programmes, via a message sent by the candidate herself who informed them that the election would take place the following day and invited them to support her. Such a mode of communication cannot be considered a public, timely, and institutionally regulated call for participation in an electoral process. It is also indicative that there was only one candidate, Maša Jovanović, which, in the context of the absence of a public call and clearly defined deadlines, further calls into question the competitiveness and integrity of the election process.
CCE emphasises that FPN and the University of Montenegro cannot distance themselves from the manner in which these elections were conducted by invoking the autonomy of student structures. While the Student Council and the Student Parliament of the University of Montenegro are autonomous in their work, as the University itself has previously stated in its communication with CCE, it is precisely from these structures that student representatives are delegated to key governing bodies of the University, including the Senate, the Board of Directors, the Quality Assurance Centre, and the Ethics Committee. These bodies decide on matters of importance for the entire academic community, including the rights and position of students, the quality of teaching, finances, ethical standards, and more. Therefore, the election of student representatives must not be a closed process that favours pre-selected or “suitable” candidates, as this deprives students of a genuine opportunity to elect their representatives and to influence decisions that directly affect them.
CCE further notes that, according to students’ accounts, this manner of conducting elections is not an isolated case, but a concerning pattern at FPN. This practice must be discontinued and replaced with one based on clear, transparent, and equally accessible procedures for all students.
This case gains additional weight in light of previous warnings issued by CCE regarding the concentration of functions and influence within student representation at FPN, particularly in relation to the former student commissioner, Vedran Vujisić, who simultaneously held positions as a teaching associate at FPN and a member of the University’s Board of Directors.
CCE therefore calls on the management of FPN and the University of Montenegro to urgently review the regularity of today’s election and, should the allegations of irregularities be confirmed, to ensure its annulment and the organisation of a new election conducted in a transparent and lawful manner.
Jovana Radulović, Programme Assistant