Polling stations in Montenegro opened on Sunday for the presidential election race, where current head of state Milo Djukanovic is looking to confirm his third mandate.
Over half a million registered voters will opt among seven candidates to decide who will receive a five-year mandate to lead the country.
Although Djukanovic has been the president in two mandates, his ratings have been shaken since his party lost parliamentary elections in 2020.
According to the Montenegrin media and pre-election research, Andrija Mandic, a political leader of Serbs, who account for around 30 percent of the country’s population, will be Djukanovic’s main rival at the elections.
If none of the candidates wins over half of the votes in the first round of the elections, the two top-ranked candidates will enter the second round of the presidential elections, which will be held on April 2.
Ahead of the presidential elections, Djukanovic dissolved the parliament due to their inability to elect the new government and announced early parliamentary elections on June 11.
Since the last parliamentary elections in 2020, Montenegro’s Parliament has ousted two prime ministers. The most recent Prime Minister-designate, Miodrag Lekic, was unable to propose a new government within the constitutionally prescribed 90-day deadline.
