In a joint press release on Monday 17 October, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn hailed the parliamentary and local elections conducted in Montenegro the previous day “in a calm and orderly manner” and “under a reformed legal framework”. The atmosphere surrounding the elections was, nonetheless, tense.
Mogherini and Hahn highlighted that, according to the preliminary statement of the OSCE/ODIHR observers’ mission, “the parliamentary elections were held in a competitive environment and characterised by a general respect for fundamental freedoms". “The positive changes observed demonstrate a genuine will to improve the process”, they added.
They went on to say that any cases of procedural irregularities observed need to be duly followed up by competent authorities and other shortcomings reported by the observers need to be addressed.
“We now look forward to the constitution of a new parliament, swift formation of a new government and to the continuation of Montenegro’s stable path towards Euro-Atlantic integration”, stated the high representative and the commissioner. Underlining that Montenegro is well advanced in its EU accession process, they said that the months ahead must be used to deepen and speed up political and economic reforms, particularly on the rule of law.
According to the effectively final results, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) has taken 36 of the 81 seats in parliament. The DPS took just over 40% of the vote, double the number won by the pro-Russian Democratic Forum (DF). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)