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Montenegro's Coalition Wins Election
Montenegro's pro-independence movement won a slim majority in parliamentary elections Sunday, early unofficial returns showed, lending key support to its drive to secede from Yugoslavia and create a new Balkan nation.
With 65 percent of the vote counted from Sunday's balloting, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic's ``Victory Belongs to Montenegro'' coalition led with 43.3 percent, the state electoral commission said, announcing unofficial returns. The anti-independence ``Together for Yugoslavia'' bloc trailed with 39.6 percent.
Citing the pro-independence movement's own figures, Djukanovic spokesman Miodrag Vukovic said that with about 70 percent of the vote counted, the coalition led 44 percent to 38 percent.
Vukovic said Djukanovic would form a new governing coalition with independence-minded liberals, who won 9 percent of the vote, and that together they would push for a summer referendum on breaking away from Yugoslavia.
The independent Center for Monitoring said the unofficial results suggested that supporters of independence would take a combined 44 seats in the 77-seat parliament �� 35 seats for Djukanovic's faction, six seats for the liberals and three seats for small ethnic Albanian parties which also support independence.
But the results emboldened the opposition and were sure to disappoint Djukanovic, who had expected a stronger mandate for independence.
Opponents of secession said they considered it a victory that the pro-independence bloc had failed to muster a two-thirds majority in parliament, which under the constitution would have made it much easier to break away. They vowed to block further efforts to declare independence.
About 448,000 Montenegrins were registered to vote Sunday at 1,098 polling stations. About 3,000 monitors �� 2,800 domestic and 200 foreign �� observed the elections, which drew a record 80 percent turnout. Official results were expected Tuesday.
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