Montenegro’s ruling party declared victory in parliamentary elections Sunday, but monitors said opposition forces who vowed to unite against its leader, President Milo Djukanovic, looked to have won a majority.
The tight contest made it unclear who will lead the next government in a country that’s embroiled in the battle for influence in the Balkans between the European Union and NATO on one side and Russia and its allies on the other.
Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists, known as the DPS, won 34.8 percent, the Podgorica-based Center For Monitoring and Research said Sunday after counting votes from 88 percent of a selection of polling stations. An umbrella group of pro-Russian and pro-Serbian parties called For the Future of Montenegro won 32.7 percent, followed by 12.5 percent for an alliance called Peace is Our Nation and 5.7 percent for one known as Black on White.