The opposition faces an uphill task trying to present a united front

Divisions among the opposition parties tend to run much deeper than those within the governing coalition, highlighted by the opposition's inability, until shortly before the May 2010 local elections, to form a broad-based electoral alliance. The leader of the Movement for Change (PzP), Nebojsa Medojevic, has been a long-standing advocate of a united front, and his achievement in 2010 in persuading the other opposition parties to join the PzP in an electoral alliance followed several failed attempts at forging unity. However, Mr Medojevic's success has not dispelled the sentiment shared by many Montenegrins that the opposition alliance brings together disparate elements such as the PzP, which campaigns on a strong anti-corruption platform, with parties representing the Serb community, and there are relatively few specific policies around which the opposition can rally.

It remains unclear who, if anyone, will become the de facto leader of the opposition. The Socialist People's Party (SNP), which again emerged from the election in 2009 as the main opposition force, lacks a clear policy focus now that the issue of Montenegro's independence, which it opposed at the time of the referendum in 2006, has slipped down the political agenda. There is speculation that the SNP could gradually move closer to the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), from which it split in the late 1990s, when it opposed the policy of the DPS leader, Milo Djukanovic, of distancing Montenegro from Serbia. Several senior figures within the DPS, including Montenegro's president, Filip Vujanovic, would welcome such a move, although it is not clear whether Mr Djukanovic would approve such a realignment. The SNP has twice as many seats in parliament as New Serb Democracy (NOVA), whose candidate, Andrija Mandic, came second in the presidential election in 2008. However, Mr Mandic's appeal will remain limited to the 30% or so of the population who identify themselves as Serbs. Despite the deep differences among the opposition-the PzP favours NATO membership, for example, whereas the parties representing ethnic Serbs oppose it-the establishment of an electoral alliance will represent an additional problem for the government.