By Aleksandar Vasovic and Branko Filipovic
PODGORICA (Reuters) -Polls opened in Montenegro on Sunday for a snap election many hope will bring in a new government to implement economic reforms, improve infrastructure and take the NATO member state closer to European Union membership.
The vote is the first in the former Yugoslav republic since Milo Djukanovic, former leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), lost the presidential election in April and stepped down after 30 years in power.
Polling stations for the 540,000-strong electorate open at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). First preliminary and unofficial results are expected about two hours later on the basis of a projection of results from a representative sample of polling stations.
The state election commission will then announce the final election results in coming days.
The state election commission said 15 parties and alliances will compete for 81 parliamentary seats in the country of just over 620,000 people.
Montenegro remains sharply divided between those who identify as Montenegrins, and those who see themselves as Serbs and who remain opposed to the country's 2006 split from a state union with neighbouring and much larger Serbia.
A poll by the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) last month put the pro-European Movement Europe Now (PES) party - which also favours closer ties with Serbia - in the lead with 29.1% of the vote. The PES's Jakov Milatovic won the April presidential vote.
LIVING STANDARDS
"I expect a stable government, one that's better than (what) we had for the last three years, EU membership, better (living) standards," Jelena Popovic, a woman in her 60s, said after casting her ballot at a polling station in a Podgorica school.
The CEDEM poll put the pro-EU DPS under acting chief Danijel Zivkovic in second place with 24.1% support, with the Serb nationalist, pro-Russia Democratic Front (DF) in third place on 13.2%.
"I expect ... a democratic government ... and (that) we start moving forward," said Milan Kaludjerovic, 80, a pensioner from Podgorica.
The vote is expected to end a period of political deadlock in which two governments, that came to power on the back of 2020 protests backed by the influential Serbian Orthodox Church, collapsed after no-confidence votes.
Montenegro is a candidate to join the EU but it must first root out corruption, nepotism and organised crime.
In 2017, the country joined NATO, a year after a botched coup attempt that the then government blamed on Russian agents and Serbian nationalists. Moscow dismissed such claims as absurd and the Serbian government denied involvement.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, Montenegro - unlike Serbia - joined EU sanctions against Moscow, sent aid to Ukraine, and expelled a number of Russian diplomats. The Kremlin has placed Montenegro on its list of unfriendly states.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, and Stevo Vasiljevic and Branko Filipovic in Podgorica; Editing by Helen Popper and David Holmes)