Around the World: Montenegro

1st presidential election

Montenegrins voted yesterday in the tiny Balkan state's first presidential election since it split from Serbia two years ago.

The ballot is a test for Montenegro's reformed socialists, who have ruled virtually unchallenged for the past 20 years.

Incumbent Filip Vujanovic of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists is regarded as the likely winner of the four-man race. Nebojsa Medojevic of the liberal Movement for Changes, and pro-Serbian challengers Andrija Mandic and Srdjan Milic were expected to split the rest of the votes in a deeply divided country, according to pre-election surveys.

(China Daily 04/07/2008 page6)