Montenegro at polls, result expected to be narrow

President Milo Djukanovic's political future is also decided at these votes. He led the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which has governed Montenegro since the beginning of the break-up of federal Yugoslavia in 1990, as well as the breakup of the union with Serbia in 2006.

Djukanovic, a determined pro-Western, has headed Montenegro's still ongoing efforts to qualify for membership in the European Union, as well as played a significant role for NATO membership in 2017.

The Podgorica-based Centre for Monitoring and Research (CEMI) said turnout was at 54.1% by 13:00, an increase compared to 39.9% of voter turnout four years ago, mainly because parties had called on supporters to vote before noon.

Voting stations close at 8:00. The preliminary results are expected to begin release by 10:00.

The DPS faces this election with the “coalition for Montenegro's Future”, composed mainly of Serbian nationalist parties that want closer relations with Serbia and Russia.

Led by Professor Zdravko Krivokapic, the alliance is supported by the influential Serbian Orthodox Church, which organises daily protests against a law adopted last December that allows the state to seize religious properties, which cannot prove historical ownership.

Montenegrins who are identified as Serbs make up about a third of the population of 620 thousand.

On the day of the 2016 elections, authorities halted an effort by Russian agents and a group of Serbian nationalists to overthrow the government and kill Djukanovic, then prime minister, to stop the country's NATO membership and bring to power a pro-Russian alliance.

Moscow I has repeatedly dismissed accusations of involvement.

After voting in Podgorica's capital, Djukanovic told reporters he is convinced that most Montenegrins would decide on a European future “and those parties that are drafting and implementing such a political programme”.

The DPS has 42 deputies in the current 81-seat parliament, but polls suggest neither that party nor nationalists are expected to secure an absolute majority, thus leaving coalitions creating governments.

Opposition leaders and activists for democracy and human rights have accused Djukanovic and his party of governing Montenegro as owners, linked to organised crime.

They deny these accusations, and Djukanovic, who is due to rerun in 2023, as well as his closest associates have accused Serbia and Russia of using the pro-Serbian church and opposition to undermine the independence of this coastal republic.

At a polling centre in Cetinje, senior Orthodox Church cleric in Montenegro, Mitrovici Amfilohije, voted for the first time in his life in an effort to push the electorate to vote against the ruling coalition. He said he does not expect elections to cause turmoil. / VoA