Rulings Socialists projected to win Albania elections (updated)
Story Highlights
- If projections hold, the Socialist Party will have 73 seats in the 140-member parliament. It was seeking more than 71 seats to be able to form a majority government on its own.
Related Articles
TIRANA, June 26 – Albania’s ruling Socialist Party is projected to win a governing majority in the country’s parliamentary elections, according to trends based on a partial vote count and exit polls.
Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialists have a strong lead across the country with about 80 percent of the ballots counted Monday night.
If projections hold, the Socialist Party will have 73 seats in the 140-member parliament. It was seeking more than 71 seats to be able to form a majority government on its own.
Rama said in a social media statement Monday morning the results were “a masterpiece by the common people of this country.”
The main opposition center-right Democratic Party marked the worst electoral result in its history, coming in second with 43 mandates.
Polls ahead of the elections did show the Democrats were unlikely to win, but the negative numbers came as a surprise to many.
There has been no official reaction from DP's headquarters yet, but at least one of the party's founders is calling for the immediate resignation of DP's chairman, Lulzim Basha.
Besnik Mustafaj, a respected voice within the Democratic Party, urged the leader to resign to open the way for a proper democratic election to find his replacement.
"I ask Basha to resign immediately so an internal election process can take place within the party, giving enough time for potential candidates to show alternatives so that we Democrats can judge their capacities," Mustafaj wrote in an op-ed piece.
The Socialist Movement for Integration has won 19 seats in parliament, while PJIU of the Cham community will get four seats. One seat was won by Tom Doshi of the Social Democratic Party.
Results might change as the counting is finalised.
CEC data showed a 46 percent turnout, down from 53 percent in 2013.
This was a breaking news article. Latest update available here.