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In Albania, Socialists Win Elections Shadowed By Vote Rigging
TIRANA, July 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In the first round of parliamentary elections, shadowed by violence and accusations of vote-rigging, the outgoing Socialist Party (SP) of Albanian Prime Minister, Ilir Meta, won 31 seats, against 16 for the Democratic Party (PD) of former President, Sali Berisha - the main opposition grouping, news agencies said.
Quoting final results for the first round of voting, the Central Election Committee said an independent candidate won in a further constituency where voting took place on June 24, the French News Agency AFP reported.
The second round of voting - scheduled for July 8 - is to be held in 45 other constituencies, and also in 80 polling stations spread over six constituencies in which irregularities were reported on June 24.
But both sides had claimed victory in the first round ballots.
Socialist head, Fatos Nano, said his party "will have an absolute majority in parliament" while former president, Sali Berisha, head of the opposition coalition, said the Democratic Party had won the first round.
"We won and we are not going to let the results be manipulated," Berisha said, quoted by AFP.
The Democrats maintain that the outgoing government has failed to crack down on corruption, and Berisha accused the Socialists of vote-rigging.
"We have won the legislatives with an absolute majority," Berisha declared on private television Sunday, as about 2,000 supporters cheered outside party headquarters in Tirana.
Speaking before official estimations had been released, Berisha warned the ruling Socialist Party not to try to take his victory by "illegal means."
The Albanian opposition leader accused the SP of trying to undermine the poll, which is seen as a key to stability in this poor Balkans country.
Berisha voted in a polling station in the center of the capital, and called on Albanians to "get rid of the most corrupt regime, a regime of organized crime and illegality" and a hierarchy of "corrupt communists" that has left the country languishing in poverty.
He further accused the socialists of irregularities.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Albania's election commission reported irregularities in about 15 sites, AFP reported.
They said the vote in two districts would be annulled, while in another, in Lushnja, in the north of the country, balloting had not even begun by Sunday afternoon due to local conflicts.
Electoral Commission Chief, Ramazan Shulku, said two people were shot and injured at a polling station on the outskirts of the Albanian capital of Tirana as voting got under way.
Voting was also disrupted when armed men entered a polling station and set fire to voting materials in the northern town of Shllak, an opposition stronghold, government officials said.
According to the Central Electoral Commission, 60 percent of Albania's 2.5 million eligible voters had cast ballots by 6:30 pm (1630 GMT).
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