Podgorica, Montenegro  - Voting began Sunday in the Montenegrin presidential election, in which the incumbent Filip Vujanovic is expected to easily win another term in the office

Surveys projected that Vujanovic, a close ally of the all-powerful Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, would win more than 50 per cent of the votes cast and secure a first-round victory as he did in 2003.

Vujanovic 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 the DPS to assert its authority after a shaky period when Djukanovic had tried to retire from the government positions.

Polling stations would remain open to the 490,000 registered voters until 9 pm (1900GMT). A high turnout of around 75 per cent is anticipated.

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 won an absolute majority in early parliamentary elections. (dpa)