Members of Montenegro's parliament voted on January 26 2009 to dissolve the legislature to allow for early elections, to be held on March 29.

President Filip Vujanovic announced the election date the day after parliament's vote.

Current opinion polls suggest that prime minister Milo Djukanovic's government will win a new term, in spite of the profound problems that have hit the economy of Montenegro, which voted in 2006 to secede from its short-lived post-Yugoslav "state union" with neighbouring Serbia.

Djukanovic's government said that it wanted a mandate to continue with its reforms to bring the country closer to European Union membership, for which it applied in 2008.

"Bearing in mind the numerous EU accession obligations ahead of Montenegro, the government thinks that the process should be managed by the parliament and the cabinet within the full four-year term," deputy prime minister Igor Luksic told parliament.

Even though there earlier had been a political deal between the government and the opposition to hold elections before the end of 2009 instead of sticking to the schedule that would have seen elections held in 2010, the opposition derided the move to have elections in the spring as a panicky move to avert unpopularity because of the economic crisis taking its toll on the government.

"The reason for the government's proposal is to have elections before huge social problems erupt in Montenegro," opposition People's Party leader Predrag Popovic said.