Edi Rama Declares Victory in Albanian General Elections

Edi Rama wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that his party has won the parliamentary elections and called on his supporters and "whoever wants to join us celebrate the victory" to attend a celebration in the evening in Tirana's central square despite concerns about the spreading of the coronavirus.

According to the latest results from Albania's Central Election Commission, CEC, after around 95 per cent of the votes have been counted, Rama's Socialist Party, which has stayed in power for the last eight years, has won 72 to 73 seats in the 140-seat parliament.

This gives Rama another slight majority in parliament, as the Socialist Party takes an unprecedented third term in the country since its first multi-party elections three decades ago.

Lulzim Basha's main opposition Democratic Party, which led an election alliance of several smaller parties called the Alliance for Change, as well as the Social Movement for Integration, led by Monika Kryemadhi, the wife of the Albanian president, Ilir Meta, seem set to remain in opposition.

Together these two opposition blocs, which have announced a possible post-election alliance should they win, are projected to have 63 to 64 seats.

President Ilir Meta, who was the head of the Social Movement for Integration before he was elected president in 2017, and sided with the opposition during the tense election campaign, called for "prudence and calm" while waiting for all the votes to be counted.

"Although I was alone in the face of all the captured institutions, I managed to make [election day on] April 25 a quiet, peaceful day, without scenes of violence and with your massive participation to exercise the right to vote. Although it seemed an impossible challenge, I am happy that April 25 could...