Milo Djukanovic

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's party, the DPS, has won the most votes - 41.1 pct - in the parliamentary elections held on Sunday.

The DPS will have 35 seats in the Montenegrin parliament. The opposition parties, meanwhile, will have 40 representatives.

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.

Tensions went up by a notch during elections in Montenegro Sunday when police said they had arrested 20 Serbian nationals, accusing them of intent to destabilize the country by terrorism.

"These persons are suspected... of acts to create a criminal enterprise and terrorism," DPA quotes national police director Slavko Stojanović says in a statement.

Voting closes at 8pm on Sunday in Montenegro where around 528,000 people are entitled to cast ballots in what is expected to be a tight election.

They will be choosing between 17 contenders for seats. Around 1,200 voting stations will be opened on polling day.

Parties must cross a three-per-cent threshold to win any of the 81 seats in parliament.

BELGRADE - NATO membership will be a central issue in Montenegro's general election on Sunday, with the vote marking the latest episode in a power struggle between Russia and the West in the Balkans, EurActiv.com reports.

BELGRADE/NEW YORK - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic met with EU foreign policy and security chief Federica Mogherini in New York late Wednesday to discuss Serbia's European path, the economic and political situation in the country and relations in the Western Balkans.

NEW YORK - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday met with the heads of government of Romania, Austria, Moldova and Luxembourg on the fringes of a UNGA session in New York.

Vucic and his Romanian counterpart Dacian Ciolos agreed to hold their next meeting in Belgrade or Bucharest soon.

While 16 parties and coalitions submitted lists for the October 16 parliamentary elections in Montenegro by Wednesday, not all are confirmed because the electoral authorities are still checking whether they are authentic.

The government in Podgorica has rejected criticism from international rights and media watchdogs which accused the authorities of violating investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic's rights by holding him in pre-trial detention for 11 months.

Montenegrin PM Milo Djukanovic said in an exclusive interview for B92 that by recognizing Kosovo no one in Montenegro had any bad intentions towards Serbia.