PODGORICA -- Longtime Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic will face off next month against a candidate nearly half his age after failing to secure a majority in the first round of a presidential election held in the former Yugoslav republic on March 19.
Djukanovic garnered 35.3 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results, edging out Jakov Milatovic, the former economy minister, who received 29.2 percent.
SEE ALSO: As Montenegrins Prepare To Vote, Djukanovic Hopes To Take Them For One Last SpinThe leader of the pro-Russian Democratic Front, Andrija Mandic, ended up in third place with 19.3 percent of the votes, while Aleksa Becic, the former speaker of parliament, came in fourth with 10.9 percent.
About 64 percent of the country's 542,000 registered voters went to the polls, according to the central election committee.
A runoff between Djukanovic and Milatovic to be held on April 2 could prove pivotal as to whether Montenegro can escape two years of political stalemate and return to the path of reform.
The 61-year-old Djukanovic, the head of the Democratic Party of Socialists, has effectively led Montenegro as president or prime minister since 1991.
He is running on the slogan "Our President," but his three decades in power have been dogged by perceptions of rampant organized crime and corruption.
Milatovic, 37, is a leading member of the Europe Now movement. He served as economy minister in a government cobbled together by the influential Serbian Orthodox Church.
He campaigned on boosting prosperity in a country that averaged nearly 3 percent growth for two decades before huge volatility over the past three years caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine that drove energy prices to record highs.
Europe Now shot into the national spotlight with a strong showing in last year's local elections in the capital, Podgorica, within months of being formed.
Polling in Montenegro is frequently unreliable, although some surveys have suggested that broad opposition to Djukanovic far outweighs support.
Observers said the election was competitive, though the vote showed that reform of the electoral legislation is necessary.
"There are still numerous gaps and ambiguities in the law. This allows authorities to make arbitrary decisions and participants to circumvent the rules. These are problems that need to be solved urgently," the head of the joint UN-OSCE observer mission, Tomas Mesaric, said on March 20.
Following his first-place finish on March 19, Djukanovic said his 6-point lead gave him a “serious advantage” over Milatovic in the next and final round.
However, Milatovic could potentially count on the support of Mandic and Becic as all three share close ties to the Serbian Orthodox Church, experts say.
A Milatovic victory would potentially represent a new era in Montenegro's political life.
In an interview with RFE/RL shortly before the first-round vote, Kenneth Morrison, a specialist in modern Southeastern European history and politics at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom, said that few presidential elections in Montenegro have been as important as this one.
The last comparable national choice came in 1997, he suggested, when, as prime minister, Djukanovic unseated a staunch ally of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic for the presidency to put Montenegro on the path toward independence in 2006.
"This election could be equally pivotal in that the outcome could determine the country's future trajectory," Morrison said.