Montenegrin voters voted on Sunday in a presidential election that pits Milo Djukanovic, veteran of the political scene in the tiny Balkan country, against candidates who hope to move the lines.
The ballot is being played out after months of deadlock in the country bordering the Adriatic. The government was overthrown by a motion of no confidence in August but is still in control.
Incumbent President Milo Djukanovic dissolved parliament days before presidential elections and called early parliamentary elections for June 11 after former diplomat Miodrag Lekic failed to form a new government.
Montenegro, which is negotiating its entry into the European Union, “is completely paralyzed on its European path”, declared the Head of State on Friday, announcing the date of the legislative elections.
In this country of 620,000 inhabitants, the president essentially has a representative role and the prime minister holds the main levers of power.
Milo Djukanovic, 61, nevertheless remains an important figure, he who has ruled Montenegro almost continuously for three decades, as president or prime minister. A former close friend of Belgrade strongman Slobodan Milosevic, he rallied to the Western camp and secured his country’s divorce from Serbia in 2006.
Radovan Djedovic, a 72-year-old retiree, would like change: “There is nowhere in the world that a man governs for more than 30 years. During this time the United States has changed its president five or six times”.
After voting, Mr. Djukanovic invited his compatriots to seize the “opportunity” of the ballot to choose “stability” and the “objective” of a Montenegro within “the family of European states and peoples”.
“I know that all (the candidates) have the same ambition, that of defeating the current president (…) and I am certain of my superiority”, he added.
But his star faded in the 2020 legislative elections in which his formation, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), was beaten by a coalition supported by the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church, the main religion in the country.
Since these elections, however, no camp has succeeded in building a stable majority and the country is going from crisis to crisis.
Seven candidates are running for president. If none manages to gather more than 50% of the vote, the most likely scenario according to analysts, a second round will take place on April 2.
Andrija Mandic, 59, from the Pro-Russian Democratic Front, Aleksa Becic, 35, from the center-right Democrats Party and Jakov Milatovic, 37, from Europe Now, a formation that seems to have the wind in its sails, will be the Djukanovic’s most formidable opponents.
Mr. Mandic promised Sunday “a policy that will deliver a fierce fight against corruption and organized crime”.
A defeat for Milo Djukanovic could spell a change of course for a country whose European prospects are clouded by accusations of corruption and the slow pace of reform.
“These elections will determine whether Montenegro will stick to its current foreign policy goals or whether they will change under Russian-Serbian influence,” political scientist Daliborka Uljarevic told AFP.
Under the aegis of the outgoing president, Montenegro joined NATO in 2017, has been negotiating its membership of the European Union since 2012 and has left the Russian sphere of influence.
But the rule of Milo Djukanovic and the DPS has been marred by accusations of widespread corruption and connections to organized crime.
Many residents are without illusions. “I am disappointed by the power which had promised reforms and rapid entry into the EU,” Anja, a 32-year-old lawyer, told AFP, who requested anonymity.
Exit polls are expected around 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT), while the Electoral Commission is not expected to release preliminary results until Monday.
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03/19/2023 18:30:17 – Podgorica (Monténégro) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
