Electionblog
This weblog follows all the important elections in the region with personal stories of participants and observers.
Archive May 2006
Fri 26 May 2006 - Viva Montenegro!
What my mother had always predicted finally happened the 21st of May in Montenegro: I went to prison. Fortunately for me my stay was limited in duration. I spent a day there as an OSCE Short Term Observer of the Montenegrin referendum on state status and independence from Serbia. The peculiar thing was that it proved to be more difficult to get INTO the prison than to get out. It took a little showdown with the prison director to get us unlimited access to the prison facilities and even then I myself, my Slovenian observation partner and the interpreter were almost constantly escorted by guards. Whether that was for our own security or that of the prisoners was hard to tell.
Our main observation was that it is a strange situation when the prison director, who is in charge of all prisoners/voters, is at the same time Chairman of the polling board. A polling board made up of his subordinates in prison. Even so, we did not observe any significant irregularities. The most remarkable thing I noticed was that the detainees who were not yet convicted but still under investigation wore expressions as if they, well, faced a lifetime in prison, but that the long-time prisoners were by and large happy people. Apparently you can get used to everything in time, even prison.
In the evening, after the polls had closed, we followed the prison director into the Montenegrin capital Podgorica, where he had to hand over the votes to the Republican Referendum Committee which was located in the Parliament. When I say followed I should say tried to follow, because the streets had filled with ecstatic supporters of Montenegrin independence who were already claiming victory even before the first results were in. Between firework, gunfire and shouts of ´Viva Montenegro´ we finally managed to reach Parliament. Where we found both prison director and referendum officials happily drinking whiskey and jokingly congratulating Serbia with its independence from Montenegro.
When we reached our hotel very much later that night, I asked the Montenegrin girl behind the desk whether she was not tired from the day's hard work. ´Yes´ she replied as she flashed me a smile, ´but it's all been worth it. Today, I have a country! ´
Posted by Pim de Kuijer, assistant of Socialist Group MEP Emine Bozkurt on 26-05-2006 - 17:26:03 Reactions: 0
