Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 16 October 2016: Crucial parliamentary election in Montenegro

2016’s parliamentary election is taking place in Montenegro. Approximately half a million of Montenegrins have been called to choose the composition of the next Parliamentary Assembly of the small Balkan country. Selected candidates belong to 34 different parties gathered in 17 coalition lists. Polling stations, which have been opening since 7 a.m. and will close at 8 p.m., are likely to present a heads up between the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists with its veteran leader and current Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and the pro-Russian and pro-Serbian opposition fronts. According to the Center for Democratic Transition, official turnout was 73.2% at 7 p.m.

Prime Minister Djukanovic, a pro-EU and pro-NATO supporter, has been leading the country for 25 years and he expects to win this election and to keep on the Western path despite the fast growing opposition groups. On October 14, he stated that the fate of the country will be decided between to become a member of the EU and NATO or a Russian colony, with the leader of the pro-Russian Democratic Andrija Mandic accusing the PM of spreading chaos and fear among citizens.
To confirm the atmosphere of tension of this election, twenty Serbs planning several attacks after voting closes have been arrested in Montenegro’s capital with country's interior minister warning people to not publically celebrate in the streets the election result.

Even though the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists seems to be the favourite one, the country presents a sharp division between those who support the Western path and a pro-Russian front. It comes from the alliance between Russia and Serbia, to which Montenegro had been part until 2006, and the strong turn toward the West after the independence. Strahinja Bulajic, a leading Democratic Front official, declared that in case of victory his party “will abolish sanctions against Russia and develop the closest economic and political ties.”
The choice of pursuing integration with the EU and NATO has dramatically cooled relations between Montenegro and Moscow and pro-Russian movements acting in the country are used to organize mass and violent protests in last years. This electoral turn seems to be decisive for the future of the small Balkan country and unexpected outcomes could led to important geopolitical repercussions in the whole region in the near future.