Stay tuned for all the latest developments, election results and reactions as Montenegrins head to the polls in Sunday's general election.
- Montenegrins will vote on Sunday in an election that has been overshadowed by bitter arguments about national identity and religious values. as well as the coronavirus pandemic.
- A total of 1,217 polling stations opened on Sunday at 7am for the country’s parliamentary elections, which are expected to determine whether Montenegrin strongman Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, will step down after three decades at the helm of the government, or continue to run the country for the next four years.
- The Montenegrin parliamentary elections are scheduled along with local elections in the towns of Budva, Kotor, Tivat, Andrijevica and Gusinje.
- About 540,026 people have the right to cast a ballot and will be electing 81 legislators from one electoral district in the eleventh parliamentary election since Montenegro introduced a multi-party system in the 1990s. It’s also fifth elections since Montenegro gained independence from Serbia after a 2006 referendum.
- Eleven coalition lists and political parties will run for the parliament and elections will be monitored by 21 international observers and monitors from local NGOs.
- The Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, has held power for the past three decades, leading Montenegro through the breakup of federal Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the demise of an almost century-old state union with Serbia in 2006.
- The main division between government and opposition is the authorities’ poor relations with the Montenegrin branch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The church gets its main political support from the opposition pro-Serbian For the Future of Montenegro alliance, led by university professor Zdravko Krivokapic.
