Former finance minister Jakov Milatovic won Montenegro’s presidential election in a landslide on Sunday, beating incumbent Milo Djukanovic, AFP and Reuters reported, according to forecasts from an NGO specializing in polling.

Yakiv Milatovych – President of MontenegroPhoto: Pavlo Bednyakov / Sputnik / Profimedia

According to CeMI, in the second round of the presidential elections, Milatovych won approximately 60% of the vote.

“I congratulate the new president Jakov Milatovic,” said Ana Nenezic, director of CeMI, according to News.ro.

Former Minister of Economy Yakiv Milatovych is a pro-European economist who studied in the West.

  • “Tonight is the night we’ve been waiting for for more than 30 years,” Milatovic told supporters of his center-right Europe Now movement at his party’s headquarters in Podgorica.
  • “In the next five years, we will bring Montenegro to the European Union,” he said.

Milo Djukanovic has held the highest political office in the country for 33 years and would like another five-year term.