Losers and Activists File Charges about Montenegro Election

The Montenegrin Prosecutor's Office confirmed on Monday that hundreds of criminal complaints had been filed alleging electoral fraud and vote-buying in Sunday's general election, although international observers said thr polls were held in a competitive environment and that fundamental freedoms were generally respected.

The prosecution said it has received 114 criminal charges of "violation of freedom of choice in voting", after the Montenegrin opposition parties and several watchdogs claimed on Monday that the election was marred by irregularities.

Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, won most votes in Sunday's ballot, but did not win without enough seats to form a government on its own.

Both the four opposition groups, with a total of 39 or 40 seats in parliament, and the DPS will now have to try form a coalition with several small ethnic parties represented in the 81-seat chamber.

During a tense voting day on Sunday, the anti-corruption watchdog, the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector, MANS, filed criminal charges against several people it suspected of buying ID cards. It said some of them offered people money or other benefits in exchange for votes, and it charged several persons with exerting pressure on voters.

Other watchdogs, the Centre for Monitoring and Research, CEMI, and the Center for Democratic Transition, CDT, also reported irregularities at dozens of polling stations.

They said party activists were seen recording voters outside some polling stations.

CDT also reported that at the polling station in the western town of Niksic, voting was stopped due to allegations of "vote buying".

However, on Monday, the OSCE/ODHIR monitoring...