New elections loom in Albania after tied poll

Jul 1, 2009, 14:53 GMT

   Tirana - Albania's parliamentary elections appeared Wednesday to have produced stalemate and a possible re-run as the two main blocs won the same number of seats in the new legislature, according to initial, unofficial results.

The coalition led by the conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party claimed 70 seats, as did Tirana Mayor Edi Rama's Socialist Party and its splinter, the LSI.

Only an unofficial online count of the votes on a US-sponsored site was immediately available, and poll authorities had yet to provide official figures, even on the turnout, despite the election having already taken place Sunday.

Berisha's coalition nevertheless claimed a victory, with the Democratic Party spokeswoman Majlinda Bregu saying there was 'no doubt' it would govern Albania over the next four years.

'We call on the central election commission to confirm what I just said - we won 71 mandates,' she told reporters in Tirana.

The opposition however accused the authorities of tampering with ballots and blocking the count in a handful of the total of 4,800 polling stations which may cement the tie.

Sunday's elections were to gauge Albania's democratic maturity and possibly unblock its bid to join the European Union.

International observers said in a preliminary report the elections were flawed, but an improvement over the chaotic, violent polls the country had in the two decades since it emerged from a harsh communist regime.

The report was however presented before election authorities violated all legal deadlines without announcing any results from the poll.