PODGORICA, Montenegro – Official results of the weekend presidential election in Montenegro have confirmed that pro-Western ruling party leader Milo Djukanovic won an outright victory, avoiding a runoff.
Montenegro's state election authorities said Monday that a near-complete vote count has shown that Djukanovic won 54.04 percent of ballots while his main opponent, Mladen Bojanic, had 33.32 percent.
Third-placed was the first ever female candidate in the staunchly conservative and male-dominated Balkan nation, lawmaker Draginja Vuksanovic, with 8.2 percent.
Sunday's vote, the first since Montenegro joined the NATO Western military alliance in December, was seen as a test for Djukanovic, who favors European integration over closer ties to traditional ally Moscow.
Djukanovic led Montenegro to independence from much-larger Serbia in 2006 and was behind last year's accession into NATO, which traditional Slavic ally Russia strongly opposed.
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