Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialist Party won over 52% of the vote in Sunday's parliamentary elections, according to official results published at midnight by the Central Election Commission, giving Edi Rama an unprecedented fourth term at the helm of the country, Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by BTA.
The Socialist Party won 52.16% of the vote, significantly ahead of the "Greater Albania" coalition of his historic rival Sali Berisha, according to results covering 100% of polling stations in Albania.
The diaspora votes have not yet been counted, but according to the first count of votes from Albanians abroad, Rama has a large lead and there.
According to the vote projections, the Socialists could win more seats than in 2021, when they won 74 seats and the Democrats 59. About forty parties participated in Sunday's elections, which were to determine the distribution of 140 seats in parliament.
The delay in counting the diaspora votes was explained by the electoral commission with the opposition's complaints about the votes of Albanians living in Greece, which it said were "manipulated by socialist sympathizers".
The DHL group, which was involved in transport logistics, claims to have the signatures of all voters living in Greece.
Former President Sali Berisha said there were "irregularities" during the elections and accused the Socialists of pressure, fraud and vote buying, hinting that his party might not recognize the election results.
"It is impossible to reconcile ourselves with such elections. No, forget about it", he said at a press conference. He called for a protest by the opposition on Friday.
The elections were closely monitored by the European Union and were seen as a test of the democratic maturity of this Balkan country, arguably the most pro-European in the region, which for decades was ruled by one of the most closed dictatorships in the world.
"According to the preliminary conclusions and findings of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - ed. note), the elections were conducted in a generally acceptable and transparent manner, with the election day being calm and well-organized, despite some shortcomings," said last night the head of European diplomacy Kaia Kalas and the Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.
Without waiting for the official results, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni congratulated Edi Rama early last night.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his British counterpart Keir Starmer also congratulated the new Albanian prime minister.