Communism Loses; Albanians Celebrate : Transition: Voters choose a new course for Europe’s poorest country. ‘Long night’ ends after 48 years of iron-fisted rule.

Jubilant Albanians rejoiced over an election victory for the opposition Democratic Party on Monday, thronging central Tirana to celebrate their country’s painful divorce from communism.

“This has ended a long night of communism,” Democratic leader Sali Berisha shouted to more than 50,000 cheering supporters who crammed the city’s sprawling Skanderbeg Square--once overshadowed by a looming statue of the late Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha.

Thrusting V-for-victory signs into the air, the crowd stood in silence as the national anthem boomed over their shabby city.

They broke into cheers as Berisha assured them that the Communists had lost their 48-year, iron-fisted grip on power.

Albania, Europe’s poorest country, was celebrating the greatest day in its history, Berisha said.

“Today the words of John F. Kennedy are fitting here: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,’ ” Berisha told the crowd.

The Central Election Commission said Monday that the Democratic Party had captured 76 of 97 electoral districts.

With a two-thirds majority, the Democrats could change the constitution to force Socialist President Ramiz Alia out of office. Aliz has completed one year of the five-year term the last Parliament gave him. Democratic Party spokesman Genc Pollo said earlier that his party would use its expected parliamentary majority to oust Alia.

According to the election commission, Socialists, the renamed Communists, captured only five of 140 seats Sunday, with 26% of the vote compared with the Democrats’ 64%. The Socialists easily won last year’s elections, Albania’s first multi-party vote since World War II.

Western observers said the reversal of last year’s result appeared to be due to a massive loss of confidence in the Socialists among Albania’s large peasant population.

The Social Democrats and the Republicans won a seat each, while the Human Rights Union, representing ethnic Greeks, took two seats. Twelve other seats will be decided Sunday in a runoff. Results were not known for three other contests.

Sunday’s elections capped a year of political and social upheaval as Albania struggled to emerge from four decades of Stalinist isolation.

Public fear of the once omnipotent Communists has dwindled into widespread disregard for authority. Chronic shortages of basic goods have sparked waves of rioting in which more than 40 people have died since November.

From dawn Monday, speeding convoys of battered cars and trucks lurched through Tirana’s streets, with youths leaning out of windows and sprawled across their hoods.

A huge American flag waved above the crowd at Skanderbeg Square, which cheered as U.S. Ambassador William Rierson hugged Democratic Party leaders and then spoke a few words in Albanian. German Ambassador Friedrich Kroneck also showed up.