Official count confirms victory of Montenegro's Djukanovic

Published April 16, 2018

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.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/world/official-count-confirms-victory-of-montenegros-djukanovic