Economists are most interested in the presidential post

The final list of those who will compete for the presidency on March 19 will be determined by the State Election Commission (SEC) tomorrow, because the influencer Jovan Radulović left a period of 48 hours to correct the defects.

The candidacies were determined until yesterday Jakov Milatović (PES), the leader of the Democrats Alekse Bečić, the leader of the United Montenegro Goran Danilović, the current head of state and the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Milo Đukanović, one of the leaders of the Democratic Front (DF) Andrije Mandić and deputies of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Draginje Vuksanović Stanković.

Yesterday, the commission refused to confirm the application Željko Matijašević because he doesn't meet the requirements, even though he previously withdrew from that story.

When it comes to Radulović, he was given time to submit 2.613 valid voter support signatures and complete the forms in the part of the name of the group of citizens that proposed him.

Half of those whose candidacies were confirmed by the SEC had previously participated in the presidential race for the head of state, and the same number came forward for the first time. They are Jakov Milatović, Aleksa Bečić and Goran Danilović.

Milatović is a former Minister of Economic Development in the Government Zdravka Krivokapića who, as written in his biography, completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Economics with an average grade of 10, and his master's degree at Oxford University as a British government scholarship holder.

He worked at NLB Bank, Deutsche Bank, and then at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

He, like Aleksa Bečić, is 36 years old.

Bečić was the youngest president of the Assembly, at whose head he spent 16 months and was replaced in February 2022 in a package with the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić.

He was elected president of the Democrats in 2015. A year earlier, as an official of the Socialist People's Party (from which the Democrats emerged), he was the holder of a list in the local elections in Podgorica called "Youth. Wisdom”. He is also an economist by profession.

Goran Danilović graduated from philosophy in Nikšić, was a journalist at RTCG, one of the founders of Radio Svetigora, deputy editor-in-chief and editor of "Voice of Montenegro".

He was the vice-president of Nova and a deputy of the DF, then the second man of Demos and a deputy from that party's list. After the split in Demos, he founded United Montenegro.

He was the Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of the so-called Electoral Trust. He was appointed acting director of the Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education in October 2021.

Along with the president of the state, two other candidates tried their hand at the elections.

The biography of Milo Đukanović, also an economist, is mostly known to the public. He was elected prime minister for the first time on February 15, 1991, on his 29th birthday. He was the youngest prime minister in Europe. He held that office for seven terms.

He will try to win a third presidential term in the elections. He was in the first from 1998 to 2002, while the second, current one, runs from 2018.

The State Election Commission rejected the complaint yesterday Momo Joksimović from the Party of Pensioners to the candidacy of Đukanović. Joksimović, among other things, contested the fact that, in case he is elected, it would be Djukanović's third term as President of Montenegro. The SEC concluded that this is a matter for the Constitutional Court and not for them.

And the president of the Board of Directors of LGBT Forum Progres addressed the Constitutional Court Bojana Jokić. She asked to cancel the presidential candidacy of Đukanović.

In her appeal, Jokić stated that the SEC incorrectly applied substantive law because, as she claims, Đukanović has no constitutional basis to be a candidate for the presidency for the third time.

Andrija Mandić also has a longer career in politics. He is one of the founders and leaders of the Serbian People's Party, since 2003, then Deputy Minister of Economy.

He was the head of the "Srpska lista" coalition, and its presidential candidate in the 2008 elections. Since 2009, he has been the head of the New Serbian Democracy, and since 2012, the founder and member of the presidency of the Democratic Front.

He graduated from the Faculty of Metallurgy and Technology in Podgorica, before active political involvement, he was an entrepreneur.

Draginja Vuksanović Stanković is a lawyer, also like Milatović, she graduated with an average grade of 10. She has a doctorate and has been teaching at the Faculty of Law in Podgorica since March 2001.

She was the president of the SDP and a candidate of that party in the 2018 presidential elections.

Escobar: Russia will try to interfere in the election campaign

The special envoy of the United States of America for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said that he expects that Russia will try to interfere in the election campaign for the presidential elections in Montenegro.

"I think that Russia will try to insert some unhealthy narratives to try to create some tensions between ethnic groups in Montenegro in this campaign," Escobar said at an online briefing with journalists from the Western Balkans.

He said that he also believes that people in Montenegro are wise enough to recognize this.

"I also believe that institutions in Montenegro have the ability to demand transparency in the election campaign," he said.