Milo Djukanovic poised for return to Montenegrin presidency

Milo Djukanovic poised for return to Montenegrin presidency
Milo Djukanovic has not lost an election in almost 30 years and was either prime minister or president for most of that time. / DPS.
By Denitsa Koseva in Sofia April 12, 2018

Montenegrins will vote for their next president on April 15 in an election where there is little doubt as to the winner after veteran politician Milo Djukanovic decided to return to politics and run for the post.

Djukanovic has not lost an election in almost 30 years and was either prime minister or president for most of that time. He has twice announced his retirement, but never really left politics.

The vote is seen as a symbolic referendum on Montenegro’s political orientation towards the West or Russia, as the two main candidates have opposite priorities in terms of international politics. While Djukanovic has always pushed for Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic integration, his main rival Mladen Bojanic was one among those insisting that Montenegro should hold a referendum on its Nato membership and is believed to be close to the Russian-backed Democratic Front (DF). 

According to a poll conducted by CEDEM in March, Djukanovic has the highest chance of becoming Montenegro’s next president and could win in the first round.

Compared to Djukanovic, Bojanic, who is backed by almost all opposition parties, has had a significantly shorter political career as an MP and civil rights activist. 

Opposition parties finally decided to unite behind him after months of disagreements between the various parties, and some still believe that his nomination was a forced last ditch solution. As opposition parties spent months in efforts to find a compromise, Bojanic’s candidacy was announced just a month before the election, leaving little time for a campaign. 

Djukanovic waited even longer, and announced his candidacy a week later than Bojanic. This makes the presidential election campaign the shortest and quietest in Montenegro’s political history. A report from OSCE/ODHIR observers at the end of March described the campaign as “barely visible”.

Apart from the two main rivals, five more candidates will compete for the presidency, including the first female candidate Draginja Vuksanovic.

The election will be held amid an ongoing political crisis provoked by the decision of opposition parties to boycott parliament after the general election in October 2016. The election, also won by the DPS, was marred by a coup plot that was thwarted by police the day before the election, and cyber attacks on election day. The coup plot was allegedly organised by Russian secret services, and the leaders of the DF are on trial for participating in its organisation.

1,000 local observers from the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) will monitor the election on April 15.

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