⁍ Montenegrins go to the polls on Sunday in a parliamentary election that looks too close to call.


⁍ Neither the long-ruling pro-Western party nor a rival pro-Russian alliance is tipped to win a majority of seats.


⁍ At stake is the political future of President Milo Djukanovic.


– Montenegro holds parliamentary elections Sunday, and polls suggest neither the pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists nor the pro-Russian alliance expected to win a majority of seats will be able to form a government. President Milo Djukanovic, who has governed Montenegro since it split from Serbia in 2006, is seen as a strong ally of the West, while the alliance led by the Serbian Orthodox Church, which holds daily protests against a law that allows the state to seize religious assets whose historical ownership cannot be proven, is seen as an attempt by Serbia and Russia to undermine the independence of Montenegro, which joined NATO last year, Reuters reports. Opposition leaders and democracy and rights watchdogs have accused Djukanovic and his party of running Montenegro as their own fiefdom with links to organized crime. They deny this, and Djukanovic—who faces re-election as the country’s president in 2023—and his top associates have in turn accused Serbia and Russia of using the Church and the pro-Serb opposition to undermine the independence of the mountainous coastal republic. Montenegro has also been combating a coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 4,500 people, caused 89 deaths, and gutted the Adriatic tourism that is a key driver of its economy.



Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-montenegro-election/divided-montenegro-on-course-for-knife-edge-election-idUSKBN25P0UM