Opposition candidates in Montenegro’s presidential polls today hope to deal the first blow that could lead to the end of the 17-year-old “regime” of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.
Despite trailing Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic in polling, the challengers are confident of forcing a runoff in which they will unite to defeat the incumbent.
“The situation is ripe for a change of power in Montenegro for the first time in 17 years,” said Andrija Mandic, one of two main challengers.
“Vujanovic cannot win in the first round,” said the leader of the Serbian Alliance party, adding that the opposition’s decision to join forces in the event of a runoff would be an “excellent opportunity” to end Djukanovic’s monopoly on power.
Vujanovic, a member of Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists, is tipped to win more than 50 percent of the vote to secure a first round victory, according to a poll by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM).
Although the poll only gave Mandic 19 percent of support and Nebojsa Medojevic, the candidate of the pro-liberal opposition Movement for Change (PzP), 18 percent, the ruling DPS is increasingly worried about a runoff, party sources say.
In addition, the PzP says CEDEM cannot be trusted, charging that it is a non-governmental organization that works closely with the ruling party.
“There is no truth in the research of CEDEM” which aimed to “discourage citizens and to kill the last hope that the changes are possible,” the party wrote on its campaign Web site.
Medojevic said he is in the best position of the three challengers to beat Vujanovic, who has 40 percent to 46 percent support against his own 27 percent to 33 percent, according to PzP polling that accounts for growing minority support.
“This isn’t a fight between parties. This is still a fight between a regime and an opposition civilian movement,” an ebullient Medojevic told supporters ahead of today’s showdown.
The April 6 poll is the first election in the Balkans since Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament unilaterally seceded from Serbia on Feb. 17.
Montenegro’s head of state serves a five-year term for a largely ceremonial role. The former Yugoslav republic has some 490,000 eligible voters.
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