Montenegro’s President Filip Vujanovic has set the date for general elections for October 16 this year, a statement on the presidency’s website said on July 11.

The coming elections are expected to be the most uncertain in recent years for all political parties, as the long-term ruling coalition has collapsed and ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) is losing support. Although the DPS led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic is expected again to gain most of the votes, it is very likely that the party will not have a majority to form a government alone.

Local analysts and policitians speculate that the opposition Pozitivna Crna Gora will become the DPS’ new coalition partner as the party’s long-term partner – the Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) - declined to support Djukanovic in a January confidence vote. However, both DPS and Pozitivna Crna Gora have denied speculation about future coalition deals for the moment.

A poll conducted by CEDEMin June showed that Djukanovic’s party would get 43.1% of the vote. Support for the party has declined since November, when another poll carried out by CEDEM showed it would gain 45.1% of the votes.

In April, the DPS and three opposition parties signed an agreement aiming to secure fair and transparent general elections in October. As part of the deal, three opposition parties - SDP, URA and Demos - entered the government, getting five ministerial seats. However, the three opposition parties also signed an agreement that none of them would join a coalition with the DPS after the general elections.

Meanwhile, Pozitivna Crna Gora did not sign any of these agreements, but also got a deputy prime ministerial seat as Djukanovic wanted to bring a broad range of opposition groups into the government in advance of the elections.

Pozitivna Crna Gora took another key political seat following the May 19 vote. Its leader, Darko Pajovic, was elected parliament speaker replace the dismissed Ranko Krivokapic, who is the leader of SDP.

Montenegro held general elections in October 2012, when the coalition between DPS and SDP gained 39 of the 81 seats in the parliament and eventually three other small ethnic parties also joined the coalition to add to the missing majority.