Montenegro's ruling coalition led yesterday's parliamentary election with 51.4 per cent of the vote, pollsters said on the basis of a representative sample of results from polling stations.

The opposition Socialist People's Party was on 17.4 per cent, while the New Serbian Democracy party was third with 9.3 per cent, the Strategic Marketing pollster and the Podgorica-based CEMI election monitors said.

Observers reported only a few irregularities, including a verbal assault on Nebojsa Medojevic, an opposition politician, at a polling station in the capital Podgorica.

After the 2006 election, political parties agreed to hold the next vote by the end of 2009, but Milo Djukanovic brought it forward, citing the need to gain a mandate for EU accession talks.

Opposition parties and analysts say the coalition also wanted to win re-election before the effects of the global recession worsen.

Pre-election opinion polls had put Djukanovic's Coalition For a European Montenegro on more than 50 per cent.

Mr Djukanovic has dominated political life in the Adriatic nation of 670,000 people for two decades and says he wants to win quick EU membership after applying last December.