Djukanovic Sole Candidate for Ruling Party's Top Post

Montenegro's ruling party congress, scheduled for next week, is expected to reaffirm Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's position as leader and tighten party discipline.

Djukanovic, a former communist, has led Montenegro for almost 25 years. He is seeking his seventh mandate as leader of a party that has been in power without interruption since the beginning of the nineties.

Following the party congress, Djukanovic will get a deputy after the leadership's decision to cut the three vice-president posts.

The sole candidate for the deputy post is reportedly Dusko Markovic, Montenegro's deputy prime minister and former intelligence chief, who is considered to be one of Djukanovic's closest allies.

The Political Council of the Democratic Party of Socialists, the party's new  governing body, will also be formally established during the congress.

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) has said not all members of the new governing body must be "politically-engaged individuals".

The main candidate for the presidency of the council is the former vice president of the party, Svetozar Marovic, who is currently under investigation over allegations his wife secretly stashed millions of US dollars in an account held by the Swiss arm of HSBC bank

Marovic has denied any wrongdoing.

Local media reported last week that the party's new statute, which will be adopted at the congress, will set out revised rules for officials in case of poor election results - whoever does not perform well in the election loses their current position within the DPS.

"Besides sharing responsibility, we aim to show that everyone in the party should be held responsible for what they do, and that they cannot blame others for inaction," a source from the...