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The form-shifting president of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, Europe’s longest-serving elected chief, misplaced a re-election bid on Sunday, in accordance with provisional official outcomes, elevating hopes throughout the Balkans of a long-awaited finish to a political period stamped by the Yugoslav wars of the early Nineteen Nineties.
The vote on Sunday was a runoff between the 2 prime finishers amongst seven candidates competing in a primary spherical final month. Mr. Djukanovic, 61, conceded defeat late Sunday to Jakov Milatovic, 36, an Oxford-educated economist who campaigned on pledges to root out corruption and arranged crime.
Mr. Milatovic gained decisively with about 60 % of the vote, with 70 % counted as of Sunday night time.
Mr. Djukanovic stated he revered the result of the vote and wished Mr. Milatovic success, including, “If he’s profitable, it implies that Montenegro is usually a profitable nation.”
Mr. Milatovic, endorsed by many of the shedding candidates within the first spherical, had been anticipated to win, however Mr. Djukanovic, a consummate political survivor, had dominated Montenegro for thus lengthy — he served 4 phrases as prime minister and two as president — that his defeat nonetheless precipitated a sensation.
“Tonight is the night time we’ve been ready for for greater than 30 years,” Mr. Milatovic advised supporters in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. “We stated goodbye to crime and corruption. It is a historic day for everybody.”
Mr. Djukanovic has been dogged all through his profession by accusations of hyperlinks to organized crime, which he has strenuously denied.
The defeat of a pacesetter who started his political profession within the former Yugoslavia lifted the spirits of opposition teams elsewhere within the Balkans, notably in neighboring Serbia, whose personal entrenched veteran chief, Aleksandar Vucic, additionally acquired his begin in Yugoslavia and has been a fixture of Serbian politics for many years.
“We hope that this victory will likely be a transparent sign to everybody that the earlier insurance policies of division and battle are dying as a result of all the area wants new individuals and new power,” the Serbian opposition celebration Zajedno stated in a press release welcoming Mr. Milatovic’s victory.
Yugoslavia, a federation of republics, dissolved in 1992, however not like, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia, which had all declared independence, Montenegro and Serbia shaped a brand new federal state known as Serbia-Montenegro. That entity, shaky from the beginning, fell aside after Montenegro declared independence in 2006.
Mr. Djukanovic first got here to energy in 1991 as prime minister of Montenegro, then nonetheless a part of Yugoslavia. Initially an in depth ally of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s Russia-friendly strongman chief, he later shifted his allegiances to the US, securing Montenegro’s entry to NATO in 2017 regardless of widespread public hostility to a army alliance that had bombed the nation in 1999.
Mr. Djukanovic additionally sought membership within the European Union, however that effort, which started in 2008, stumbled largely due to Montenegro’s popularity for sheltering criminals.
Mr. Milatovic vowed on Sunday to get the nation into the bloc earlier than the tip of his five-year time period as president.
A political novice, Mr. Milatovic ran as a candidate for the newly shaped celebration Europe Now and promised to shed Montenegro’s unsavory picture. He accused Mr. Djukanovic of turning the nation into the “Colombia of the Balkans,” a reference to Montenegro’s function as a hub for smuggling cigarettes and different contraband.
Mr. Djukanovic was near Russia within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, when Montenegro opened its doorways to a flood of funding from Russia and have become a well-liked vacation vacation spot for Russians. However he later threw his lot in with the West, accusing Russia of orchestrating what his officers stated was a botched 2016 coup geared toward torpedoing the nation’s NATO membership.
He additionally reached out to China, sealing a cope with that nation’s state firms for the development of a “freeway to nowhere” that value almost $1 billion and severely strained Montenegro’s funds.
Mr. Djukanovic tried to color Mr. Milatovic, his electoral rival, as a stalking horse for Serb pursuits, citing his endorsement by pro-Serb politicians. However that was a tough promote given Mr. Milatovic’s earlier profession with Deutsche Financial institution and the European Financial institution for Reconstruction and Improvement, and the incumbent’s personal lengthy document of flip-flops and questionable dealings.
Alisa Dogramadzieva contributed reporting.
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