Montenegro's Vujanovic wins re-election

07/04/2008

Sunday's presidential election in Montenegro appears to have further cemented the strength of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, which has been in power for 19 years.

(Reuters, Balkan Insight, HINA - 07/04/08; AP, Reuters, AFP, DPA, B92, Balkan Insight - 06/04/08)

Incumbent Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic (left) speaks to the press after casting his ballot in Podgorica on Sunday (April 6th). [Getty Images]

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic won a second five-year term on Sunday (April 6th). It was the country's first presidential election since it left a loose union with Serbia two years ago.

Based on a 93% vote count, independent observers said that the 53-year-old lawyer and senior member of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) had garnered 52.3% of the vote, more than the 50% required for outright victory in the first round.

Of the other three candidates for the largely ceremonial post, the Serbian List bloc's Andrija Mandic fared best with 19.3%, while the leader of the Movement for Change (PZP) and anti-corruption campaigner Nebojsa Medojevic came in third with 17.3% of the vote.

Socialist People's Party candidate Srdjan Milic was fourth with 11.2%. All three conceded defeat after preliminary results were announced.

The state electoral commission is expected to announce final results on Monday, when the Election Observation Mission deployed in Montenegro by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is also due to issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions.

Election observers of the Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT) and the CEMI monitoring agency placed the turnout at around 69%, about 22% above that in the 2003 presidential poll. Vujanovic's victory has further cemented the uninterrupted 19-year rule of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's DPS, which steered Montenegro to independence in May 2006.

"This is a victory for all of us, for our Montenegro and for a better future," Vujanovic, who has also served as prime minister and parliament speaker in the past, told supporters in Podgorica after the results were announced. "I also want to express my gratitude to those who voted for my opponents. I will be the president of all of Montenegro's citizens."

With his close ally Djukanovic standing at his side, he also pledged to keep Montenegro firmly on the path of EU accession.

"We'll work together for our European future," Vujanovic said, addressing a crowd of cheering supporters. "Montenegro belongs to the European Union, and we'll join it."

Montenegro signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU in October 2007, making a first major step towards eventual membership in the 27-nation bloc.

"I see that the consensus behind the pro-European policies of DPS continues to grow," Djukanovic said.

Vujanovic's victory came three days after NATO leaders invited his country and Bosnia and Herzegovina to start an Intensified Dialogue to join the 26-nation military pact.

While DPS supporters hailed their party's victory as evidence of its strong popular mandate, the opposition took a more critical view. For Medojevic, whose campaign centered on pledges to clean up the country's political system, the results simply reinforced the status quo.

"The vote has shown that Montenegrins are still not ready for change of the corrupt and totalitarian regime," he said Sunday.

While the Adriatic republic's annual economic growth stands at about 8% and foreign direct investment has grown to about 1 billion euros since 2006, widespread corruption and weak institutions remain among the primary challenges facing the country.