Belgrade (EFE) (PES) is the favourite.
Some 540,000 citizens with the right to vote are called to the polls to elect the 81 deputies of the Montenegrin Parliament.
This small country, which in 2006 became independent from the state it formed with Serbia after the decomposition of the former Yugoslavia, has been a member of NATO since 2017 and a candidate for membership in the European Union (EU), a goal it aspires to achieve before 2030 and which is supported by 76% of citizens.
Voters will be able to choose between fifteen parties and coalitions
Polls show that the PES, formed a year ago and whose popularity is rising, would be the winner of the elections, although it will need coalition partners to have a majority in Parliament.
According to the poll by the NGO Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), the PES, with its leader, the young finance expert Milojko Spajic who is emerging as a possible future prime minister, has 29% support.
This formation is followed by the until 2020 dominant Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) with 24%.
Its candidate for prime minister is the jurist Danijel Zivkovic, who replaced the former president of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic on an interim basis last April as the head of the DPS, who has been the country’s strong man for three decades and has charted its Euro-Atlantic path.
Several more parties could enter Parliament
The brief campaign abounded in promises of increases in wages and pensions, social benefits, large investments and infrastructure projects, but with little explanation of their financing.
The PES promises an increase in the average salary up to 1,000 euros and the minimum up to 700, a minimum pension of 450, zero unemployment and a seven-hour working day.
Spajic and the economist Jakov Milatovic, elected president of Montenegro in April, presented an economic program in 2021 with which they doubled the minimum salary to 450 euros per month and increased the average salary by 40% to 700.
The DPS assures that its investment program of one billion euros would lead to an increase of 50% in the average salary and 20% of the minimum pension -now 270 euros-, as well as different social subsidies.
Unemployment in Montenegro reaches 18% and inflation has dropped from 16% in January to 8.6% in April.
The unattractive campaign was shaken in its last days by suspicions launched by some politicians about Spajic’s alleged links and cooperation with the “king of cryptocurrencies” Do Kwon, claimed by South Korea and the United States on charges of having defrauded 40,000 million of dollars.
Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro last March with forged documents and is being held pending extradition.
Spajic assures that it is an attempt to fabricate a media scandal to prevent the victory of the PES.
Sunday’s elections should end three years of political instability, which has led to the fall of two governments since 2020, the last one last August.