With regard to the result of the ballots cast by Albanians the exit poll said on late Sunday evening that ‘Lista Shqiptare’ has got 1.4 percent of the votes, while ‘Koalicioni Shqiptar Njëzëri’ 1.1 percent
Polls have closed in Montenegro’s tense parliamentary election that is pitting a long-ruling, pro-Western party against an opposition alliance seeking closer ties with Serbia and Russia.
The pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of President Milo Djukanovic is leading by a hair over the pro-Serb and pro-Russian alliance, a preliminary exit poll showed on Sunday as reported by news agencies.
DPS is in line for 34.7 percent of the vote, followed by the opposition For the Future of Montenegro alliance with 33.1 percent, according to a poll by election monitor CeMI based on 70 percent of its sample.
With regard to the result of the ballots cast by Albanians the poll says ‘Lista Shqiptare’ has got 1.4 percent of the votes, while ‘Koalicioni Shqiptar Njëzëri’ 1.1 percent. According to projections, Albanians can win two seats in the new 81-member Parliament.
By the time polls closed at 18:00 GMT, voter turnout stood at 75.9 percent, slightly higher than the 2016 parliamentary elections which marked a voter turnout of 73.4 percent.
Sunday’s election was largely marked by a dispute over a law on religious rights introduced in late 2019 that is staunchly opposed by the influential Serbian Orthodox Church.
The church has argued the law allows the state to confiscate its property as a prelude to setting up a separate church. This has been denied by the government. The Serbian Orthodox Church remains Montenegro’s largest religious institution and a third of its population identify as Serb.
The issue has fuelled divisions and sparked protests in the Adriatic nation of 620,000 people and a NATO member since 2017. Djukanovic’s party has led Montenegro for three decades and his DPS has never lost an election. Opinion polls ahead of the election predicted that the DPS will finish ahead of other groups, but might not garner enough votes to form government on its own./argumentum.al
