Montenegrins voted Sunday in snap general elections, with veteran Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic vowing to guide the country through an economic crisis and to closer ties with the EU and Nato.
Authorities said polling was slow, with around a third of voters having cast ballots almost half-way through the election in this tiny ex-Yugoslav republic of 650,000 inhabitants wedged between mountains and the Adriatic Sea.
In Sundays vote, called some 18 months in advance, Djukanovics coalition is likely to sweep to a landslide victory despite increasingly obvious signs of an economic downturn. Djukanovic, who is vying for a sixth term as PM at the age of 47, said the poll was "another important day for Montenegros future."
"I expect citizens to elect a parliament and government which will keep on managing important reforms responsibly and speed up Montenegros approach to its strategic goal: European standards for citizens," he said.
President Filip Vujanovic called on the opposition to "support projects which are in the interest of all citizens," primarily in "overcoming the consequences of the economic crisis." But the splintered opposition has accused Djukanovic of trying to win a new term before the full impact of the global economic crisis is felt on a fragile Montenegrin economy heavily dependent on tourism.
"Crime and corruption are bricks that have been holding the foundations of this regime - if we pull one brick, the regime will fall," said Srdjan Milic of the main opposition pro-Serb Socialist Peoples Party. No major incidents were registered, the only event of note being a heated argument between opposition anti-corruption leader Nebojsa Medojevic and a Djukanovic supporter at a polling station in the capital Podgorica.
The opposition, an assortment of parties representing minority Serbs and people fed up with Djukanovics domination, is in too much disarray to cause an upset, analysts say. This has left many Montenegrins feeling there is little their ballots can change.
"I will not vote for the first time in a decade as both the regime and the opposition are clueless and have no real plans," said economist Sanja. Retiree Gojko said he had voted for the opposition for the first time.
"We ordinary people have not seen all those promised changes," he said in reference to pledges after Djukanovic led Montenegro to independence from a union with Serbia in 2006. But Lela Ojdanic, an administrative clerk, said she had no choice but to vote for Djukanovic.
"Who else? He is the only one capable of leading the country from this crisis and he has showed it so many times," Ojdanic said. Montenegro applied to join the European Union in December, while also pledging to join the Nato military alliance, which last year invited the country to begin a dialogue on its membership aspirations. But after an independence-fuelled honeymoon which helped fuel double-digit growth in 2007, Montenegros economy is being tipped to post growth of 2.0 percent at best during the next two years.
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