Djukanovic Wins Montenegro's Elections Amid Complaints of Violations

Montenegro's longstanding Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, has won 36 of the parliament's 81 seats in Sunday's election, according to the first exit polls announced by Montenegrin watchdogs, the Center for Democratic Transition, CDT, and the Centre for Monitoring and Research, CEMI.

If the minority parties, which ran independently in this election, choose to join him, Djukanovic will now be able to form a new government.

DPS official Predrag Sekulic told reporters following the election that his party had again scored a victory, the seventh in a row, and could have 43 MPs in parliament if its "traditional partners" side with them.

"I believe that the next four years will be marked by our successful politics and continued integrations," Sekulic said.

The exit poll results show that the former junior ruling partner, the Social Democratic Party - also called the Social Democrats - won two seats, the small ethnic Bosniak party secured three, and the Albanian and Croatian minority parties ended up with one each, which if they side with Djukanovic, will give him 43 seats in parliament.

The initial election results are a major disappointment for opposition forces, which were seen for the first time since Montenegro gained indepdence in 2006 to be a serious threat to Djukanovic's 27-year reign.

The initial results show that the pro-Russian opposition alliance, the Democratic Front, won 18 mandates, the group of three centre-left parties in the Key 'democratic coalition' won 10 seats, while the small Democrats party and Social Democratic Party will have eight and four seats respectively in the parliament.

Opposition official Nedjeljko Rudovic, coming from...