ePetitions - From Citizen to Parliament
The Constitution of Montenegro states that every citizen has the right to file a petition with the Parliament. If the petition is signed by more than 1% of the total country population, the Parliament is obliged to discuss it and decide on that matter.
Before the ePetitions, the process involved a citizen first filing a petition in paper format, and then he or she had a 60-day deadline to come back to the Parliament office and bring the petition vote list. This process consumed a lot of time, and not many citizens were prepared to do it, so not many petitions were filed.
The challenge was to encourage citizens to file more petitions by simplifying the process and digitising all the steps required. Since the files are no longer submitted in paper format, another challenge was the validation of user data and GDPR-compliant security measures to ensure the maximum security of the data.
Also, we had to implement notifications for administrators and citizens to keep them informed about the latest petitions and their statuses.
The one-stop-shop for all the official means of addressing the Parliament aside from petitions, citizens can file a question to a Member of the Parliament or even an appeal. We have implemented all of that on a single, superbly designed platform called ePetitions. You can see it in live action here: https://epeticije.skupstina.me/ and down there, we provided some screenshots from the actual application.
Some of the petitions on the platform reached the goal of 6,000+ votes and were discussed in Parliament. As a result, the members, for example, discussed banning TikTok in Montenegro and the privatisation of one of the state hospital facilities. All of this, according to the will of the citizens, was filed and signed from the comfort of their homes. How great is that?
