Foreign News
Montenegro’s president dissolves parliament as election nears
Aljazeera reported that Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has issued a decree to dissolve parliament, days before a presidential election.
The move on Thursday came as a three-month legal deadline expired for former top diplomat and prime minister-designate Miodrag Lekic to form a government.
According to the country’s constitution, an election should be called a day after the parliament is dissolved. The president must set a date for a new parliamentary vote 60 to 100 days after the decree.
The parliament was dismissed before Montenegrins were due to go to the polls on Sunday to elect a president. Djukanovic, who has held high-ranking political posts in Montenegro for the past 30 years, is one of seven candidates.
Montenegro’s political turmoil has worsened since the parliamentary elections in 2020, in which Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists suffered a historic defeat by a church-backed coalition.
Two governments have collapsed since, the last one in August, which nonetheless stayed on, kicking off a wave of protests and calls for snap elections.