Montenegro's incumbent president Filip Vujanovic was re-elected on April 6 in the first polls held by the country since its split from Serbia, Associated Press reported.

Vujanovic won 51.4 per cent of all votes, according to exit polls made public on the evening of April 6, defeating pro-Serbian candidate Andrija Mandic and liberal Nebojsa Medojevic, AP said. Official results are expected on April 7.

Turnout was 69 per cent, or 22 percentage points higher than in 2003, when Vujanovic was elected to his first term.

"I won for Montenegro and its future. I will be the president of all the people in Montenegro," Vujanovic told supporters at a victory rally. He added that the election results were a public endorsement of his staunch pro-independence position. Montenegro split from Serbia in 2006.

Despite strong economic growth since then, the country has a bad reputation for ever-present corruption. "The vote has shown that Montenegrins are still not ready for change of the corrupt and totalitarian regime," liberal candidate Medojevic said, as quoted by AP.