(30 Mar 2009) SHOTLIST
++INTERIOR SHOTS++
1. Various of supporters from the coalition for European Montenegro party singing and celebrating at party headquarters
2. Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, entering room
3. Djukanovic clapping and waving as audience in background cheers and chants his name
4. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Milo Djukanovic, Montenegro Prime Minister:
"Dear friends, the coalition for European Montenegro has absolute victory at these elections. (Applause) This victory is more convincing than any other before."
5. Various of crowd chanting and singing
++NIGHT SHOTS+++
6. Fireworks in skies over Podgorica
7. Woman with umbrella taking photo of fireworks
8. Various of fireworks
9. Various of people in cars waving flags and tooting horns in support of election win
STORYLINE
The ruling pro-European coalition that led the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro to independence convincingly won early parliamentary elections Sunday, an independent vote monitoring group said.
The Podgorica-based Centre for Monitoring said that based on a complete vote count, the European Montenegro grouping of long time Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won about 51 percent, giving it 49 seats in the 81-seat parliament.
The opposition pro-Serb Socialist People's Party was a distant second with about 17 percent, giving it 16 seats.
Official results are expected on Monday, but the independent count made at polling stations by the group's monitors after the polls close has proved highly reliable in the past.
Djukanovic himself declared an "absolute victory" that was more "convincing than any other before" as he addressed jubilant supporters at his party's headquarters in Podgorica.
Hundreds more celebrated in the streets of the city with fireworks and much honking of car horns.
It was reported some even began firing their guns into the air.
The fragmented opposition conceded the defeat, the worst since 1990 when the first democratic elections were held in Montenegro.
Djukanovic called the vote 18 months early, saying he wanted a new mandate for painful economic and social reforms needed to bring the country closer to the European Union and NATO membership.
The opposition, however, says that the man who has ruled the tiny nation of some 680-thousand people almost unchallenged since 1990, scheduled the vote early because he feared the global financial crisis that is starting to grip his Adriatic Sea state could dent his popularity over the long term.
Turnout was about 65 percent, about three percent lower than in the last parliamentary elections held in 2006, which were comfortably won by Djukanovic's coalition, according to independent vote monitors.
Because of the global financial crisis, Montenegro is faced with a sharp drop in foreign investments.
Its economic growth of over 10 percent in 2007, one of the highest in Europe, is expected to drop to 2 percent this year, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.
Montenegro split from much larger Serbia in a popular referendum in 2006.
Local analysts said that Montenegrins regularly vote for Djukanovic because the opposition does not have a clear alternative to the one offered by his ruling coalition.
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