The Montenegro National Election Study (MNES) is the first systematic and longitudinal research on electoral behaviour in Montenegro. It is conducted with the aim of collecting relevant, high-quality, and comparable data regarding voting and political behaviour in general.
This study follows a longitudinal design, meaning that data is collected after each parliamentary election, and thanks to the sets of questions that are repeated in each cycle, trends in political behaviour can be monitored.
In addition to the standard questionnaire that remains identical in each cycle, the project team adds questions relevant to the specific social and political context in each of the waves.
The main topics of the national section of the questionnaire are as follows:
MNES is part of a broader program that coordinates research and electoral studies worldwide – Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (www.cses.org). As part of CSES, MNES includes a module of questions coordinated at the program level, prepared and agreed upon by all national teams at a joint meeting.
The first MNES was conducted in 2012, following the Parliamentary elections in October of that year, and included only the CSES module of questions. The sample used that year included 1,000 respondents. The second MNES was conducted after the Parliamentary elections in 2016 and, in addition to the CSES module, included nationally relevant questions. This wave, in line with the recommendations of the CSES General Conference in August 2016, included 1,200 respondents. The third MNES was conducted in 2023, following the Parliamentary elections held in June 2023.
In addition, MNES has conducted two more studies – a study on the prevalence and practices of vote-buying after the local elections in 2018 and a pilot study to test the questionnaire for the sixth module of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems.
In line with the principle of openness and data sharing, MNES data are available in full to the interested scientific and non-academic public, respecting the terms of use. For additional information regarding data access, you can contact us via email at office@defacto.me.
The first two waves of MNES research were funded by DeFacto Consultancy, while the third wave was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Monitoring (CEMI) as part of the project “For Free and Fair Elections – Montenegro 2023/2024,” funded by a donation from the British Embassy in Podgorica.
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