Local Elections in Cetinje

At early local elections in Cetinje the absolute majority was won by the coalition of two ruling Montenegrin parties, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Social-Democratic Party (SDP), and their candidate for mayor won in the first round, Belgrade media report.

Non-Government organisations which monitored the elections, the Centre for Monitoring (CEMI) and the Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT) have announced that 57 percent of the citizens voted for DPS-SDP, and that they won 19 places in the local assembly.

The Lovcen for a Free Cetinje list, which gathers officials of the former Liberal Alliance (a pro-independence party which earlier this year brought a decision on its own termination) and who had up to now been in power in Cetinje, won 11 deputies, after 32 percent of the citizens voted for them.

The Coalition of the Socialist People’s Party (SNP), People’s Party (NS) and the Democratic Serbian Party (DSS), which are all in favour of a joint state with Serbia, won seven percent of the vote, or two mandates, and the Citizens’ Party four percent and one mandate.

The DPS-SDP candidate Milo Jankovic won 59.1 percent, the candidate of the Lovcen list and the up to now mayor Aleksandar Aleksic 38.2 percent, and the candidate of the Citizens Party Bobo Vuckovic 2.7 percent.

CEMI and CDT announced on Sunday evening that there had been violations of the election procedure, but not in a measure that would influence the regularity of the elections.

The opposition, however, disagrees. Aleksic claims that the elections were decided by the “buying and selling of votes”, and similar accusations are also being brought by the coalition of pro-Serb parties.

So, in Montenegro’s ancient capital, 89% of those who voted supported pro-independence parties. (Turnout was 71%, apparently, according to one of my other sources.)