(ANSA-AFP) - PODGORICA, 29 AGO - Montenegro's pro-West leader is fighting to extend his party's 30-year grip on the EU candidate country on Sunday in polls dominated by identity debates and anxiety over a pandemic-hit economy. The party of President Milo Djukanovic is one of the most indestructible political forces in the Balkans, having led Montenegro from the end of communism in the 1990s to independence from Serbia in 2006, and now to the doorstep of the European Union. But, accused by rivals of spinning a web of clientelism and corruption, the president's camp could struggle to form a majority after Sunday's race. The governing coalition currently holds a narrow edge -- 42 of 81 seats in parliament -- and the upcoming poll is expected to be even "tighter" than previous elections, said Milos Besic, an analyst in Podgorica. The vote comes in a year of political turmoil, with large protests against Djukanovic over a religion law that flared tensions around national identity, still haunting Montenegro 14 years after it split from Serbia. "Apart from a health crisis due to coronavirus, the thing that will mark the following elections is a deepening of divisions within Montenegro society," Besic told AFP. (ANSA-AFP).