Montenegro PM claims victory in state's first election

Montenegro: Milo Djukanovic, who for 15 years has ruled Montenegro as president and prime minister, celebrated victory yesterday in its first elections as a sovereign state.

Almost four months after voting to split from Serbia, Montenegrins handed the pro-independence leader about half the seats in parliament, and left his two main pro-Belgrade opponents licking their wounds with around 11 seats each.

"I can say with certainty that we have 42 seats and that we are fighting for the 43rd [in the 81-seat parliament]," Mr Djukanovic said, claiming victory after projections by independent election monitors gave him at least 40 seats.

The two pro-Serb parties would win only about 23 seats together, exit polls showed, with the Movement for Change taking 11, a promising result for a party created only recently and focused on fighting the alleged corruption of Mr Djukanovic's regime.

Official results are due this week, but turnout was estimated at almost 70 per cent, lower than that for a May referendum in which voters strongly backed independence from Belgrade.

A former ally of Serb president Slobodan Milosevic and one-time target for a smuggling investigation by Italian prosecutors, Mr Djukanovic (44) has brushed off a controversial past to cast himself as the only leader capable of taking Montenegro into the EU and Nato.

"This is a triumph for Montenegro's European policy," he told cheering supporters at a victory rally. "These elections have shown that Montenegro is stable and firmly on the European track."

Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, said yesterday that Brussels would resume negotiations on a pre-membership agreement with Montenegro later this month, but stressed more reforms were needed before the deal could be concluded.

"The elections were conducted largely in accordance with international election standards," Mr Rehn said, citing a preliminary report by international monitors.

"The principal challenges that Montenegro now faces are the continuation of reforms and the consolidation of the rule of law."

Montenegro is pinning most of its economic hopes on a boom in tourism along its stunning Adriatic coastline and in the rugged mountains that give the country its name.

Foreign investment is increasing, particularly in the property and tourism sectors, and the economy is expected to grow by 4.5 per cent this year.

But officials admit major spending on transport infrastructure is required over the next decade to ease the movement of people and goods around the country. Petar Ivanovic, the director of the Montenegrin Investment Promotion Agency, said one main challenge for the new government would be to speed up the remaining privatisation. The state has already privatised some 80 per cent of assets.