© Reuters. Milojko Spatić, leader of the Europe Now movement, casts his ballot at a polling station during snap parliamentary elections in Podgorica, Montenegro, June 11, 2023. REUTERS/Stevo Vasilevic
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By Aleksandar Vasović and Branko Filipović
PODGORICA (Reuters) – Montenegro’s Europe Now movement won 25.5% of the vote in a snap election on Sunday, based on a projection of results from a sample of polling stations, pollsters Monitoring and Research Center (CEMI) said.
The pro-European Social Democratic Party, which ruled Montenegro between 1990 and 2020, came second with 23.8% support.
The Conservative Alliance for the Future of Montenegro, led by the pro-Serbian, pro-Russian Democratic Front, received 14.7%.
Another pro-EU group including the Democratic Party and the URA movement headed by outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazović came in fourth with 12.3%, according to CEMI based on 90.5% of votes counted in a representative sample of 400 polling stations across the country.
The state election commission is expected to announce final results in the coming days.
Fifteen parties and coalitions are vying for 81 parliamentary seats in the country of just over 620,000 people.
PES, which has pro-EU policies and also wants closer ties with neighboring Serbia, has failed to secure enough votes to rule alone, and will have to look for partners in the 81-seat parliament to form a government.
Montenegrins hope the new administration will improve the country’s economy and infrastructure, and bring the NATO member country closer to membership in the European Union.
The vote was the first in the former Yugoslav republic since Milo Djukanovic, the former leader of the DPS party, lost the presidential election in April, and resigned after 30 years in power.
According to CEMI, voter turnout by the polls’ closing time at 8pm (1800GMT) was extraordinarily low at 56.4%. Observers say there has been little wrongdoing.
The vote is expected to end a political deadlock, as two governments that came to power after 2020 protests with the backing of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church collapsed after a vote of no confidence.
Montenegro joined NATO in 2017, a year after a failed coup attempt that the government blamed on Russian agents and Serbian nationalists. Moscow dismissed such allegations as “absurd” and the Serbian government denied involvement.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Montenegro, unlike Serbia, acceded to EU sanctions against Moscow, sent aid to Ukraine, and expelled a number of Russian diplomats. The Kremlin has put Montenegro on its list of unfriendly countries.