Podgorica, Montenegro - Montenegrins go to the polls Sunday to elect their head of state for the next five years, with the incumbent Filip Vujanovic hoping for a first-round win.

Latest surveys projected a certain win for Vujanovic, a close ally of the all-powerful Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

If he claims more than 50 per cent of the votes cast, he would avoid a run-off against the second-placed candidate on April 20.

Vujanovic, who swept into office with a first-round win in 2003, and his supremo Djukanovic have been in power in Montenegro with their Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) since 1991.

Pollsters gave neither of the challengers fronting the disunited Montenegrin opposition a better than outside chance of even making it to the second round.

The Serbian List runner, Andrija Mandic, was tipped to win 19.1 per cent, the Movement for Change chief Nebojsa Medojevic 18.3 and Srdjan Milic of Socialist People's Party 9.8 per cent.

The vote for the largely ceremonial office is mostly an opportunity for DPS to assert its authority after a shaky period when Djukanovic had tried to retire from the government positions.

The 490,000 registered voters would be allowed to cast their ballots between 8 am and 9 pm (0600-1900GMT). A high turnout was expected.

The private Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) said earlier that it would calculate the outcome from a representative sample between 20 and 70 minutes after the voting ends.

Officials from the Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, EU and other organizations would monitor the elections on invitation by Podgorica.

The smallest of the former Yugoslav republics, Montenegro and its 650,000 inhabitants were also the last to divorce Serbia, following a referendum on independence pushed through by Djukanovic in May 2006.

Four months later the DPS-led coalition had won an absolute majority in early parliamentary elections. (dpa)