Call for Recount in Montenegro

Pro-Serb Camp Disputes Narrow Victory for Independence

PODGORICA, Serbia and Montenegro -- Supporters of a unified Serbia and Montenegro demanded a recount Monday as pro-independence Montenegrins celebrated victory in a vote for their republic to break away from its neighbor.

With nearly all ballots counted, 55.4 percent of voters chose to dissolve Montenegro's 88-year union with Serbia. That is just over the 55 percent threshold needed to validate Sunday's referendum under rules set by the European Union.

The pro-Serb camp in Montenegro issued a statement saying the results "should be double-checked and ballots from all the polling stations should be recounted."

Hours before the official results were announced, independence supporters flooded streets of the capital, Podgorica, and other towns, even though their victory did not appear certain at that point.

"I congratulate you on your state," said the pro-independence prime minister, Milo Djukanovic. "Today, the citizens of Montenegro voted to restore their statehood."

In Podgorica, people fired celebratory shots into the air and drove up and down the main street, honking and waving the eagle-emblazoned flag used when Montenegro last enjoyed independence, from 1878 to 1918.

In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, officials urged calm. Ethnic Serbs make up 30 percent of the population in Montenegro, and many strongly oppose separation from Serbia. Serbia did not want separation, but has said it will respect the decision.

In the former Yugoslavia, referendum results have sometimes led to major clashes and outbursts of nationalism. The Bosnian war started on the day that former republic voted for independence in early 1992, when its minority Serbs rebelled against the pro-independence government.

The State Electoral Commission said 88 percent of Montenegro's 485,000 voters cast ballots in the referendum -- the highest turnout since the first democratic elections in the 1990s.

Montenegrins and Serbs share the same language, culture and religion, Orthodox Christianity. They have so much in common that one of the anti-independence camp's key arguments was that there is no difference between them.

However, over the centuries, a separate identity developed among Montenegrins. Because they live in an isolated, mountainous region, Montenegrins have been better able to preserve their customs than Serbs, whose easier-to-conquer land was occupied by the Turks.