Exit polls indicate Socialist majority after Albanian parliamentary elections

Last Updated: June 25, 2017 18:36 GMT

By RFE/RL

A woman casts her vote during parliamentary elections in Surel, near Tirana, on June 25.

Exit polls indicate Albania's ruling Socialists have likely secured a parliamentary majority in elections seen as key to the country's future relationship with the European Union.

Citing exit polls, broadcaster Ora News on June 25 projected that Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialists will win 45-49 percent of the vote, good enough for 71-75 seats in the 140-seat chamber.

The center-right Democrats of Lulzim Basha, an ardent admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, are forecast to have won 30 percent of the vote.

An exit poll by Italy's IPR Marketing provided similar results.

Official results are expected on June 26.

If the projections hold, it will allow the 52-year-old, pro-Europe Rama to set the political agenda without the need for a coalition. His party was favored going into the vote, but experts were unsure if it would attain a majority.

A clear victory would allow Rama to rule without his current junior coalition partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), which received about 19 percent of the vote.

Rama has become increasingly at odds with the LSI and its former leader, former Prime Minister Ilir Meta, who is now president-elect after being voted to the mostly ceremonial position by parliament.

Although the elections apparently went off smoothly, voter turnout was 44.9 percent, a record low for a general election in Albania.

In 2013, turnout was 52.7 percent, with some 1,750,000 people voting. Preliminary calculations indicate 1,514,851 out of a possible 3,452,260 voters turned out for the current election.

Because of the low turnout – which some people blamed on the record-high temperatures and celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan – the election commission extended voting by an hour past the scheduled closing time.

The Socialists and Democrats were the leading parties looking to gain an outright majority in the parliament of the NATO-member, Muslim-majority country of 2.9 million people.

The Democrats had threatened to boycott the elections, demanding that Rama resign ahead of the vote to ensure a fair process.

The United States and the EU brokered a deal in May that overhauled election rules and allowed the opposition greater oversight over the process.

Rama is seeking his second term as prime minister. He described the vote, held in front of international observers, as a pivotal moment for the country and its hopes to join the EU.

Rama, who has voiced concerns about Russian influence in the country, has said he would like to complete EU ascension talks by the end of this year.

His rival, Basha, has also said he favors EU membership, calling it the "divine mission of the Democratic Party."

The country gained EU-candidate status in 2014, but movement has been slowed by a perceived lack of reforms, including those involved with the election process, and long-standing corruption.

While in power, the Socialists have improved tax collection and ruled under an improvement in economic growth – 3.45 percent last year from less than 1 percent four years ago.

However, they were unable to fulfill promises to create 300,000 new jobs and provide free health care for everyone over 40 years of age.

The country has come under scrutiny for its massive levels of marijuana production, and it is a major transit route into Europe for cocaine and heroin.

Basha, 43, a former transport and interior minister, accuses Rama of ignoring Albania's problems and glossing them over with "facades and palm trees."

Both Rama and Basha previously served as mayors of the capital, Tirana.

With reporting by dpa, AP, Reuters, and Balkan Insight

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