Samir KajosevicPodgoricaBIRNApril 2, 202322:17Milo Djukanovic’s several decades in power in Montenegro finally came to an end on Sunday when he lost Sunday’s presidential elections run-off to a 36-year-old newcomer.
Presidential candidate and incumbent President Milo Djukanovic at the polling station in Podgorica. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC
Montenegro’s President and leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists Milo Djukanovic was defeated in Sunday’s presidential election run-off, losing power 32 years he was first appointed Prime Minister in February 1991.
The longest-serving leader in Europe lost the presidential elections by a large margin to 36-year-old political rookie and Europe Now candidate Jakov Milatovic.
In the second round, preliminary results put Milatovic on 60.1 per cent of the counted votes while Djukanovic won 39.9 per cent.
The turnout was 70.7 per cent out of almost 542,000 eligible voters in the small country of some 620,000 people. The turnout was higher in the 2018 presidential elections, when Djukanovic won his second term as President.
Djukanovic conceded defeat, saying: “Montenegro chose and I respect that choice. I wish Milatovic to be a successful president and that Montenegro continues to be a successful country”.
According to Sunday’s results, the former ruling DPS continued its downward trend among voters, as Djukanovic was their last senior state official following the loss of parliamentary elections in August 2020.
The party that dominated Montenegro for almost three decades lost power in the August 2020 parliamentary elections to an uneasy coalition of three former opposition blocs.
The political fall in the fortunes of the party continued in the local elections last October, when the DPS lost control of 10 out of 14 municipalities, including the capital, Podgorica.
On Sunday ruling majority parties praised Milatovic’s victory as the end of Djukanovic’s political era and another step towards creating a democratic society.
The NGO CEMI and another monitoring group, the Centre for Democratic Transition, reported numerous irregularities at dozens of polling stations.
They reported incidents in polling stations and photographing of ballot papers, while party activists were also seen recording voters and giving them money outside polling stations.
Late on Sunday, police said they received a false threat about bombs planted in several polling stations in the capital, Podgorica.
The DPS said its activists were threatened in the towns of Niksic and Bar, accusing police of searching their party offices.
On Saturday police reported confiscating voters lists during searches in several towns, claiming that political activists were pressuring voters. The DPS accused the police of pressuring their party activists.
In the first round of the elections, on March 19, Djukanovic won 35.7 per cent while Milatovic won 28.9 per cent.
Other candidates supported Milatovic in the second round. Ruling pro-Serbian Democratic Front candidate Andrija Mandic, Democratic Montenegro candidate Aleksa Becic and outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic all pledged to support Milatovic. In the first round, Mandic won 19.3 per cent and Becic won 11.1 per cent of the votes cast.
This was the tenth election since the fall of Communism in 1990, and the fourth since Montenegro regained its independence in 2006.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
