Albania’s ruling Socialists secure majority in parliamentary vote

A near-complete ballot number shows the Socialist Party won 52 percent of the votes oregon 82 of 140 parliamentary seats.

Albania’s ruling Socialist Party has won the country’s parliamentary elections, according to a near-complete ballot count, securing Prime Minister Edi Rama an unprecedented 4th word successful office.

With astir 96 percent of ballots counted, the authoritative results connected Tuesday showed the Socialist Party got 82 seats successful the 140-seat parliament with 52 percent of the votes.

The absorption centre-right Democratic Party secured 51 seats with 34 percent of votes. Three different tiny parties volition instrumentality the remainder of the seats.

The threshold for introduction into the assembly successful Albania is 1 percent for parties and 5 percent for enactment alliances.

The afloat results are expected aboriginal connected Tuesday. If confirmed, the results would beryllium an summation from the past election, wherever Rama’s enactment won 49 percent of the vote, and would springiness him a bulk to signifier a government.

Delay possible

The Central Election Commission, the electoral executive, has said that by law, the last results travel retired 48 hours aft the ballot ends.

The results whitethorn beryllium delayed pursuing a petition of the absorption not to see astir 53,000 ballots mailed from the diaspora successful neighbouring Greece, claiming they are manipulated.

For the archetypal time, those successful the diaspora could formed postal votes. About 195,000 mailed successful their votes.

Eligible voters successful Albania and overseas voted to elite 140 lawmakers for a four-year mandate successful the Balkan nation. Because of wide emigration, the state of 2.4 cardinal radical has a full of astir 3.7 cardinal eligible voters.

Diaspora votes from Greece whitethorn determination a fig of seats successful 3 oregon 4 areas successful favour of the ruling party. The absorption claims they were manipulated by Socialist supporters. The postal institution said it has confirmation signatures of each the voters successful Greece.

Officials number ballots successful a counting centre, aft Sunday’s parliamentary predetermination successful Tirana, Albania, May 12, 2025 [File: Florion Goga/Reuters]

Rama, who has been successful powerfulness since 2013, focused his run connected moving to summation rank successful the European Union by 2030. Sali Berisha, the campaigner of the blimpish Democratic Party, argued that Albania inactive is not acceptable for the bloc’s membership.

Some analysts were amazed by the spot of Rama’s success, expecting that a bid of corruption scandals and the caller unrest successful the state owed to a crackdown connected the absorption would impact his results.

A associated planetary reflection ngo noted that contempt being competitory and professionally managed, the predetermination process truthful acold was marked by the ruling party’s misuse of nationalist resources, a confrontational and polarising tone, the 2 main governmental parties utilizing divisive language, non-transparent financing, and unbalanced media sum of smaller parties.