Montenegro officially independent

Montenegro officially independent

According to the official tallies, 230,661 voters, which translates to 55.6 per cent, supported Montenegrin independence. A total of 419,240 voters participated in the election, which is 86.5 per cent of Montenegro’s registered voting population.

According to the European Union’s conditions for a successful referendum, 55 per cent of voters were needed to secure independence.

The Constitutional Court announced yesterday that no complaints regarding the referendum process were filed during the allotted amount of time, though over 200 complaints of the unionist bloc were disregarded.

The preliminary referendum results indicated that 55.5 per cent of participating Montenegrin voters supported independence, while 44.5 per cent voted for the preservation of the union of Serbia-Montenegro.

Lajčak continues to criticize unionists

The EU’s special envoy for the referendum Miroslav Lajčak said that he is upset by the behaviour of the bloc supporting the preservation of the union and tits refusal to accept the results.

“It is too serious of a question to sacrifice for party interests and politics. It shows that a vast majority of the bloc for the federal union is lacking in democratic principles. This speaks about them, not about the process.” Lajčak told Podgorica daily Dan.

He said it is still too early to talk about Montenegro’s chances of becoming a member of the European Union and whether the independent state will be accepted into the EU before Serbia.

“It is completely superfluous and wrong to speculate about dates and periods for EU membership and this process which has its phases and cannot be decided upon now.” Lajčak said.

Regarding the rumours that he will be named the EU’s envoy for the process of discussing the disintegration of the union, Lajčak said that this is nothing more than speculation and that he does not have any official information on the matter.