Albania's ruling party ahead in key elections
Albania's general election, widely seen as a key test in view of the country's EU aspirations, went relatively smoothly on Sunday (28 June), with early exit polls giving Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party a clear lead over the opposition Socialists.
Independent exit polls by US-based Zogby International, Italy's IPR Marketing and Kosovo-based Gani Bobi all said Mr Berisha was headed for another term, giving him 45 to 49 percent, or around five percent more than the Socialists, led by Tirana's mayor, Edi Rama.
The Socialist Movement for Integration of former Socialist prime minister Ilir Meta came third with around 6-9 percent.
It is the first time exit polls have been published in the country, with official results expected later on Monday.
Both Mr Berisha and Mr Rama had EU accession high amongst their priorities, as well as fighting widespread corruption and organised crime and improving living conditions in the country.
"With these elections, which will be free and fair, Albanians will sign [their support] for the European project," Mr Berisha was reported as saying when casting his vote.
The 65-year-old former heart surgeon's government led Albania into Nato on 1 April this year and submitted the country's EU membership application at the end of April.
For his part, Mr Rama has also vowed to push forward with Albania's EU bid if he wins, as well as to end what he sees as Mr Berisha's nepotist structures in the administration.
"The vote is the only possibility to make history and today every Albanian has such an opportunity," he said.
The 45-year-old former art instructor in the Albanian Academy of Arts contested the results indicated by exit polls.
"We have won this battle ... The exit poll concept cannot give us a clear picture in this country, because people who voted for the opposition were not free to express their vote," Mr Rama was quoted as saying by news portal Balkan Insight.
"These exit polls are an experiment in the wrong place at the wrong time," he added.
Albania, a country of around three million people situated in south east Europe, between Greece, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia, was a Communist state until 1991. All elections since then have been disputed and marred by violence, including those of 2005.
Some 'irregularities'
This year's vote was seen as crucial for what is one of Europe's poorest countries.
Ahead of the elections, the EU had repeatedly said they would show whether Tirana was ready for closer EU ties.
The pre-election campaign was marked by isolated cases of violence, including one man shot in an argument over a campaign poster and a deputy of Albania's Socialist Party shot dead by an unidentified killer in his car in the beginning of May. Another politician from the small conservative Christian Democratic Party was killed in a car explosion earlier this month.
Some 3,000 observers, including more than 2,000 local ones and 400 from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were monitoring the voting process on Sunday.
OSCE observer mission chief Robert Bosch said there were "slight irregularities," but he also said they were less numerous and less grave than in previous elections.
Albanian media reported some incidents of stolen ballot papers, double voting and complaints that names were missing from a new electronic register of voters. Intimidation of voters by political parties and men voting for their wives and other family members were also reported by independent observers.
"I can't say that these elections were perfect, because no election process is perfect, but these elections were far better than any other before," Mr Berisha was reported as saying by German press agency DPA after the end of the voting process.
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