Ruling Socialists Take Lead in Albania Elections

According to Albania's Central Electoral Commission, CEC, preliminary results show that the Socialist Party, PS, in power since 2013, won 51.65 per cent, after 40 per cent of votes have been counted.

The opposition Democrats, led by Lulzim Basha, came second with 29.29 per cent, while the junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, came third with 15.38 per cent of votes.

PS' results suggest that the party may be able to form the government alone, as it is likely to hold 75 of 140 seats in parliament.

According to CEC, the turnout was 45 per cent - one of the lowest ever reported for a general election in Albania.

In 2013, the general election turnout was 52.7 per cent and around 1,750,000 people voted. On Sunday, according to preliminary calculations, 1,514,851 people voted out of a possible 3,452,260.

Due to low voter turnout, CEC even decided to postpone polling station closures by an hour, from 7:00pm to 8:00pm.

Although election day passed relatively peacefully, the interior ministry opened a phone line so that anyone who had information about vote-buying or pressure being applied to voters could report issues to the police.

Earlier in the day the deputy prime minister, Ledina Mandija in a interview with News 24 said that the Prosecutor's Office had received information that certain armed groups had been travelling in cars with no license plates and had been involved in vote buying. The incidents were reported in Delvine, Lezhe, Lushnje, Velipoje and Shkoder.

Minister of Interior Dritan Demiraj said that based on his information there has been an increase in vote-buying on election day.

Local media also reported that tensions were flaring between supporters of LSI...

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