Friday, August 03, 2012

Djukanovic Won't Rule Out Run for Prime Minister

Longtime Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic won't rule out a possible run for prime minister, as the country readies for early parliamentary elections in October.



When asked whether he would run for the post of prime minister or president of Montenegro, Djukanovic said that at the moment he did not intend to do so but that he could not completely rule out the possibility.
“This is politics; you never know what will happen until the end,” he told reporters.
Djukanovic, who is currently the president of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, dominated the political scene in Montenegro for nearly two decades before stepping down as prime minister in December 2010.
He took up the post of premier in 1991, and held it alternately with the post of president for almost 20 years.
The DPS, which currently rules the country with Social Democratic Party, voted last week to cut short the mandate of the current parliament to allow for early elections, which President Filip Vujanovic called for October 14. The ruling parties argued that the government needed a stable four-year mandate in order to carry out EU accession negotiations.
The ruling coalition, which has been together for 14 years, intends to run together again in the October election and is expected to win.
It is still not clear if Montenegro's leading opposition parties will form a large coalition.
The opposition New Serbian Democracy and Movement for Change parties have said they will run as a coalition, and have formed the Democratic Front led by former diplomat Miodrag Lekic.
The Socialist People's Party of Montenegro, SNP, which is the country's largest opposition party, has not said whether it will join the Democratic Front, and is expected to make a decision on the coalition question by August 5.
Darko Pajovic of the newly formed Positive Montenegro party said earlier that his party would take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections independently.
SNP leader Srdjan Milic has said that the ruling coalition is the only political opponent of his party, adding that the SNP was open for talks with Democratic Front representatives about anything that would help remove the current government.
“If someone wants honest and fair cooperation, they can have it with the SNP. But if they want to take us down, they will have their biggest opponent,” he said.
The SNP has argued that Montenegro lacks fair and democratic conditions for elections. The party has stressed, however, that it will not boycott the elections if other opposition parties do not support a boycott.

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