Montenegro Opposition Pledges Fresh Round of Protests

The Democratic Front is planning new protests aimed at forcing out Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic - who has held power since 1991 - on September 27, it said on Monday.

The alliance said the protests would continue until they achieved their goal - the resignation of the Djukanovic government, formation of a technical government and the organization of the "first ever free and fair elections" in Montenegro.

The current government was elected on December 2012. It comprises Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, the Social Democratic Party, and three ethnic minority parties. Regular general elections are not due till next spring.

The Front has called on all "open-minded and courageous Montenegrin", on all those who feel cheated and humiliated, those who have had enough of poverty, injustice, corruption and crime, to join the protests.

Demanding that the government crack down on corruption and improve the economic situation, the Democratic Front in May launched a campaign to promote its plan for mass anti-Djukanovic protests across the country, visiting the least developed municipalities in the north.

The alliance said that in discussions with citizens of different political, ethnic and religious affiliation it received support to start protests against the "criminal and incapable" Montenegrin government.

"Montenegro is the only European country in which the government has never been replaced at democratic elections," the alliance said in a statement.

In spring 2013, thousands of opposition supporters rallied for days in the capital, Podgorica, against alleged vote-rigging in the presidential elections after the initial results declared that the ruling party's candidate had won.

The protests ended after the...