Montenegro’s electoral commission confirmed that incumbent Filip Vujanovic won this month’s presidential election despite protests from the opposition which has alleged fraud.
Vujanovic, the candidate of the governing Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, was declared the winner of the April 7 presidential election on Monday - a move that is likely to further anger the opposition, which claims that its candidate was the real victor.
Montenegro’s election commission, DIK, said that Vujanovic had attracted 161,940 votes, while his sole challenger Miodrag Lekic, who ran as an independent although he leads the largest opposition group, the Democratic Front, attracted 154,289.
The commission’s final assessment largely confirmed the preliminary results, issued the day after the vote, despite opposition claims that the election was rigged to keep Vujanovic in office.
The confirmation of Vujanovic’s victory came two days after several thousand opposition supporters staged a protest in the capital Podgorica.
“I don’t have the right to accept the electoral fraud because all citizens were ripped off, and I want this to be the last gathering because of the electoral fraud,” Lekic said at the protest which attracted around 5,000 people, according to police estimates.
Protesters were demanding that the results of the April 7 vote be annulled and a new election staged.
Montenegro’s constitutional court has already rejected Lekic’s appeal against the DIK’s decision not to accept his complaints about electoral irregularities.
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