Montenegrins Vote in Early Parliamentary Elections on Sunday

UPDATED Montenegrins Vote in Early Parliamentary Elections on Sunday

Lyubomir Gigov, BTA special correspondent Sofia Angelova

Election day in Podgorica (BTA Photo)

Podgorica,

11.06.2023 09:56 | UPDATED 11.06.2023 22:13

(BTA)

Montenegrins Sunday voted in early parliamentary elections, which are crucial to overcome the political crisis and break the stalemate in the country's progress towards EU accession. According to a nongovernmental organization's data, the voter turnout was 56.4%, and the biggest share of the votes - 25.5% - went to the Europe Now Movement. Next with 23.4% is DPS.

A total of 542,468 citizens are eligible to elect 81 members of the Montenegrin Parliament from candidates nominated by 15 parties and coalitions.

The polls opened at 7:00 a.m. local time and closed at 8:00 p.m.

The 620,000-strong Adriatic country has been an EU candidate country since 2010. Montenegro was the most advanced of the countries in the region in the EU integration process until last year, when two governments were ousted in a vote of no confidence and no agreement was reached on a third.

In March, then-president Milo Djukanovic dissolved the Assembly and called snap parliamentary elections at which his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) will for the first time stand in opposition, now that its nearly 30 years in government ended after the 2020 vote.

According to analysts and polls, the coalition around the pro-European, centrist Europe Now Movement, which also supports closer ties with Serbia, will get the most votes. The coalition's top-of-the-list candidate is former finance minister Milojko Spajic, who founded Europe Now last year together with Montenegro's new President, Jakov Milatovic.

Milatovic defeated veteran Montenegrin politician Milo Djukanovic in April in a presidential run-off.

The coalition around Europe Now is not expected to garner enough voter support for a majority in parliament and will have to seek support from other parties to form a cabinet.

The pro-European DPS, which now has a new leadership, is likely to come in second. Djukanovic, who led the country out of the 2006 union with Serbia and brought Montenegro into NATO in 2017, stepped down as DPS leader after losing the presidential election. Danijel Zivkovic, 35, is the leading candidate of the DPS-led coalition.

In these elections, the United Reform Action Civic Movement (URA) of Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic and the Democratic Montenegro of former parliament president Aleksa Becic are running as a coalition. They may well win the third largest number of legislative seats.

A coalition calling itself For the Future of Montenegro is also expected to make it to the new parliament. It is made up of two parties, part of the pro-Russian and pro-Serb Democratic Front, which broke up in May and was the basis for the formation of the government after the 2020 elections.

/LG/