Albanians Head To Polls To Elect New Rulers

Albanians head to the polls on Sunday to choose between 18 parties and decide which one - or ones - should run the country for the next four years.

The number of parties on the ballot has shrunk compared with the last general election in 2013, when voters had a choice between no less than 66 parties.

No pre-electoral coalitions have been registered either, though representatives of parties closely allied to the opposition Democratic Party, PD, are part of the latter's lists.

The real struggle over coalitions is expected to get underway after the June 25 election.

According to the Central Electoral Commission, CEC, 3,452,260 names are on the electoral rolls in 5,362 polling stations all over the country.

However, the actual number of voters is expected to be far lower, since around half of those names have emigrated.

According to World Bank data in 2015, only around 2.9 million people currently live in Albania.

Albania has had a regional proportional system since 2009, in which parties compete to win the biggest number of seats in 12 electoral zones. A total of 140 MPs will be elected to parliament for the next four years.

The Tirana zone has the highest number of mandates, with 34, while Fier comes in second place with 16. Durres and Elbasan each have 14. The northern area of Kukes, a smaller electoral zone, will elect only three.

The Socialist Party, run by the Prime Minister, Edi Rama, is asking voters for a second mandate to govern the country.

The second pretender to victory, hoping to become Prime Minister himself, is the leader of opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha.

The election result of the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, a party that has played the role of kingmaker in the...