Albania Vote Compromised, Opposition Says

Opposition parties accused the ruling Democrats of engineering widespread election irregularities Sunday and pulled out of parliamentary voting.

The move by at least five parties--including all the major ones--was a blow to hopes that Albania could make a relatively smooth transition to democracy after decades under one of the world’s harshest Communist dictatorships.

The Socialist Party, successor to Albania’s Communists, led four other parties in pulling out of the nationwide balloting. Party officials made the announcement several hours before polls were scheduled to close.

“The Central Election Commission has seriously and intentionally compromised the elections,” said a statement read by party spokesman Kastriot Islami. “We do not recognize the results. We are pulling out our candidates, election commission representatives and observers.”

The Socialists, whom analysts had expected to give the Democratic Party a close run for control of the country, called on the Democrat-run election commission and the Constitutional Court to invalidate the vote.

They said they would not take part in any second-round voting that had been scheduled for next Sunday and would boycott any new parliament that might be called as a result of the election.

President Sali Berisha, in a brief interview on official TV, said the opposition parties withdrew after more than 80% of the voters in this country of 3.2 million had gone to the polls in a sign that they have faith in democracy.

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“I want to guarantee the Albanian people, the electorate of the Socialists and other opposition parties that each vote will be counted correctly,” he said.

The first preliminary results were strong for the ruling party.

Several thousand supporters celebrated to blaring music and car horns around the party headquarters in central Tirana.

Berisha, who was elected by parliament in 1992 and has one more year to serve, has said he would resign if the Socialists won.

The Socialists alleged that local party officials have been beaten or detained and that procedural irregularities made it possible for the Democrats to manipulate election results.