Election silence in Montenegro, Djukanovic challenged by Milatovic

On the eve of the second round of presidential elections, held Sunday, April 2nd, the election silence has begun at midnight.

Election silence is in effect until the closure of polling stations Sunday at 8:00.

During that period, media presentations of presidential candidates, political advertising, publicisation of the voting results, slogans or symbols of candidates, and results of public opinion polls are prohibited.

In the election race are two candidates for presidents, who won the most votes in the first election round of March 19th -- Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro candidate Milo Djukanovic and Jakov Milatovic, the candidate of the European Movement now.

These are the fourth presidential elections since Montenegro's renewed independence and the seventh since the introduction of the multi-party system.

Right voting in the second round of Montenegro's presidential elections has 542,154 citizens, which is the same number of voters as in the first round. Most voters are in Podgorica -- 143,608, meanwhile, at least in Shavnik, 1.777 voters, located north of the state.

The winner in the second round of presidential elections will be the candidate to win the largest number of votes from the voters. The president's mandate lasts five years.

The rule of the election process will be monitored by ODIHR monitoring missions, European MEPs and the Council of Europe, as well as by nongovernmental organisations the Centre for Monitoring and the Centre for Democratic Transition./ REL