[ALBSA-Info] Albanian Socialists claim election victory

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Albanian Socialists claim election victory

By Benet Koleka and Linda Spahia

  
TIRANA, June 25 (Reuters) - Albania's Socialist Prime Minister Ilir Meta 
claimed victory on Monday in his country's general election, which 
international observers said had been generally fair despite some 
shortcomings. 

But as many as 45 out of 140 parliamentary seats were likely to be decided in 
a second round of voting in two weeks' time, so the size of the likely 
Socialist majority remained uncertain. 

"The Socialist party has won," said political analyst Remzi Lani. "I don't 
believe that the second round will lead to spectacular changes." 

The opposition Democrats of former President Sali Berisha alleged widespread 
irregularities, insisting they had fared better than the government had 
acknowledged, but they stopped short of challenging the result. 

First official results from Albania's first general election since it 
descended into anarchy in 1997 had still not been announced by early evening, 
but Meta said the Socialists would remain in office with a substantial 
majority. 

The result would be "a clear victory for the Socialists, which means a clear 
majority for ruling the country for another term," Meta, 32, told Reuters in 
an interview. 

"I am very satisfied with the process which helped the country take another 
remarkable step towards European standards." 

The prime minister said his priority for the next four years would be 
speeding up reform and tackling corruption in this poor and often turbulent 
Balkan nation of 3.5 million people. 

He said he saw no risk of the conflict in neighbouring Macedonia 
destabilising his country and described support among his compatriots for a 
"Greater Albania," uniting all ethnic Albanians within a single state, as 
minimal. 

SECOND ROUND OF VOTING ON JULY 8 

Socialist Party leader Fatos Nano said his party looked set for a majority of 
the 100 seats which are directly elected. 

"According to my assessment, 35 seats were won by the Socialist Party, 18 by 
the Democratic Party and 45 or 46 will go into a second round," he said in a 
radio interview. 

The second round will take place on July 8 in constituencies which did not 
produce a clear winner on Sunday. An additional 40 seats in the 140-seat 
single chamber are allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the 
vote. 

In their first comment on the election, observers from the Organisation for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe said the 
vote "marked progress towards meeting international standards for democratic 
elections." 

"These elections were conducted reasonably fairly and compare quite well with 
other countries that we have observed," said Bruce George, a British member 
of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. 

Berisha, who never recognised the result of the 1997 election in which he 
lost power, said he expected the Democrats to have won around 47 percent of 
the vote in the first round. 

"We are watching and gathering all the facts. This election violates all 
international standards," he said. 

Meta, prime minister since 1999, said his country had now put an end to the 
political instability and periodic unrest that had plagued it since the 
collapse of communism in 1991. 

"Since the end of the Kosovo crisis, the country has entered a long-term 
period of stability, development and integration," he said. "Today Albania is 
more stable than yesterday." 

The election campaign was peaceful, in contrast to the 1997 election, when an 
Italian-led peacekeeping force had just restored order after months of 
anarchy started by the collapse of fraudulent pyramid investment schemes. 

Albanian politics remains deeply polarised and hundreds of thousands of 
weapons looted from army barracks in 1997 are still in private hands. But the 
country has been peaceful since 1998 and the tone of political discourse has 
become less rabid.