(11 Jun 2023)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Podgorica, Montenegro - 11 June 2023
1. Various of people registering to vote, election officials inside polling station
2. Various of people voting
3. SOUNDBITE (Montenegrin) Mladen (no last name given), local resident:
”I expect some positive changes, stable government, some positive economic changes.”
4. Various of election officials, people voting
5 SOUNDBITE (Montenegrin) Jelena ( no last name given), local resident:
”I expect that European Montenegro wins and that everything goes well.”
6. Various of people voting
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Nenezic, political analyst:
“This time the focus is on the economic issues, which is beneficial for society. But there is a reason for us to be concerned because we can see that these promises, economic promises, are not based on a real economy. We are speaking more about the populism. So if the parties who are promising bigger salaries and better conditions for living of the people do not find a way how to deliver its promises, we can expect our citizens to go back to the previous narratives that were used for the political benefit by the parties, or to regain the nationalism story as the main story. That is the main fear.”
8. People coming out of the poling station
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Nenezic, political analyst:
“Also we are speaking about the EU integration process, as one of the really important topics, even though it's not the main one. Even if we know that citizens would like to hear more about it, but the economic issues are the main issues of this campaign.”
10. Election officials inside poling station
11. SOUNDBITE ( English) Ana Nenezic, political analyst:
“Based on the information and projections that we can see after the elections, I will be really surprised if we get a stable, politically stable government. This is because there is a lot of shift on the political markets to say it like that. I'm not even sure that the same political parties which are running for these elections will be in the same capacities as now after the elections. So we need to wait to see what are the results and what will start happening after the elections. It will not be easy to form coalitions, especially after the scandal that we had in the last two days between (Milojko) Spajic and (South Korean cryptocurrency trader) Do Kwon, if I say it correctly, and accusations that came from the prime minister (Dritan) Abazovic. This is something that it needs to be really investigated by the state institutions, by the institutions which job this is, because so far we just have the information coming from a politician, who is a prime minister, but at the same time he's a main political rivalry of Spajic.”
12. People outside poling station
STORYLINE:
Montenegro is holding an early parliamentary election Sunday, a vote that could provide indications of whether the small NATO member in the Balkans will overcome the deep political divisions and instability that have hampered its route to joining the European Union.
Some 542,000 voters are eligible to choose among 15 parties and coalitions fielding candidates, ranging from groups that are staunchly pro-Western to ones that are pro-Serbian and pro-Russian.
The election will be Montenegro's first in more than 30 years that does not feature Milo Djukanovic, who served almost continuously as the country's prime minister or president since 2001.
He lost a presidential election in April and has taken a back seat in politics.
Djukanovic led Montenegro to independence from Serbia in 2006 and defied Russia to join NATO in 2017.
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