BELGRADE, April 2. /TASS/. Montenegro’s former Minister of Economy Jakov Milatovic is winning Sunday’s runoff presidential elections with more than 60% of votes, the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) said after counting 66% of ballot papers.

"After counting 66% of the data, Milo Dukanovic is winning 39.8% of votes, Jakov Milatovich is scoring 60.2% As of now, it can be said with confidence that these ddata are an indicator and the final result will not differ much," a CeMI official said.

Milatovic of the Europe Now movement was Montenegro’s Minister of Economy from December 2020 to April 2022. In the first round of voting on March 19, Milatovic scored 28.92% of votes while his rival, incumbent President Milo Dukanovic, won 35.37%

Sunday’s voting was monitored by more than 1,000 observers.

The Montenegrin president is elected in a nationwide vote for a term of five years and cannot stay in office for more than two consecutive terms. Under the country’s constitution, Montenegro is a parliamentary republic, with the president having basically representative functions. Nevertheless, the president has a say in the formation of the cabinet and the nomination of a prime minister.