Albanian preliminary election results show Socialists ahead

TIRANA, Albania -- Preliminary results in Albania’s parliamentary election on Monday showed the ruling Socialist Party ahead, with voters supporting the country’s uphill effort to join the European Union and Prime Minister Edi Rama’s bid for a fourth term.

With a quarter of the votes counted, Rama's left-wing Socialists have 53% of the votes, followed by the opposition center-right Democratic Party-led coalition of Sali Berisha with 35%.

With those numbers the Socialists will get the required 71 seats to govern alone and likely even more than the previous mandate.

Preliminary turnout Sunday was almost 42.16%, or 4% lower than four years ago.

About 3.7 million eligible voters in Albania and abroad voted to elect 140 lawmakers for a four-year mandate in the Balkan nation. Because of mass emigration, the country of 2.8 million people has about 3.7 million eligible voters. For the first time, those in the diaspora, about 191,000, could vote and cast their ballots by mail.

Ilirjan Celibashi, the head of the Central Election Commission, said that Sunday's vote was largely peaceful, with some irregularities involving candidates and some of their supporters that would not negatively impact the results.

“For the most part, excluding some sporadic cases, the process has been in line with the rules and standards,” he said Sunday evening after the voting ended.

Rama’s Socialist Party says it can deliver EU membership in five years — end the negotiations until 2027 and wait for approval from each of the EU’s 27 member countries until 2030 — which is an ambitious pledge while battling conservative opponents with public recriminations and competing promises of pay hikes.

Rama, 60, who secured the start of EU membership negotiations last October, highlighted achievements in infrastructure and justice reform in his campaign.

The Socialists say they will accelerate a tourism boom, and increase foreign visitors from 10 million arrivals in 2024 to 30 million by 2030, by diversifying destinations through the expansion of infrastructure projects. Rama also has pledged pension and pay hikes.

Rama’s main challenger is Sali Berisha, 80, a former president and prime minister, who argues that Albania still isn’t ready for EU membership.

Berisha held an electoral campaign resembling that of U.S. President Donald Trump, also hiring one of his top campaign consultants.

More than 570 international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe monitored the election, highlighting the international community’s stake in ensuring a credible and transparent process.