President Of Montenegro Dissolves Parliament, Clearing Way For Early Elections

The dissolution of parliament comes three days before the presidential election in which Milo Djukanovic is running for reelection.

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic on March 16 issued a decree dissolving the national assembly, paving the way for new parliamentary elections.

According to the constitution, Djukanovic must announce the date of early parliamentary elections on March 17, and the vote must take place 60 to 100 days after his decree.

The dissolution of parliament comes three days before the presidential election in which Djukanovic is running for reelection. Analysts predict the vote will not produce a clear winner and that Djukanovic will face a runoff two weeks later.

The decree dissolving the assembly, which was sent to the media by the president’s press service, notes that it has been 90 days since the amendment to the law on the president proposing Miodrag Lekic for the mandate was published in the Official Gazette.

Lekic failed to secure the support of at least 41 out of 81 MPs for the formation of a new government within the stipulated period.

Djukanovic has refused Lekic as prime minister citing procedural errors.

Djukanovic has held high-ranking political posts in Montenegro for the past 30 years. He led Montenegro to its independence from the Serbia-Montenegro state union in 2006, secured NATO membership for Montenegro, and put it on the road toward joining the European Union.

His opponents accuse him and his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of corruption and links to organized crime. He denies those charges.

The tiny Adriatic country's political turmoil dates back to August last year when the government of Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic fell in a no-confidence vote.

Lekic was subsequently handed a mandate to form a government on the basis of controversial amendments to the law on the president under which the parliamentary majority took over part of Djukanovic’s constitutional powers.

The law was changed in the Assembly of Montenegro in December by the parliamentary majority, which consists of the pro-Russian Democratic Front, the Democrats, the Socialist People's Party and the URA Civic Movement.

Djukanovic and European authorities have said the curbing of the president's authority contradicted the constitution and should be changed.

The United States and the European Union have appealed to the parliamentary majority not to try to form a government based on the amended law because it would have questionable legitimacy.

With reporting by Aneta Durovic, AP, and Reuters