Albania's opposition leader admits defeat in parliamentary elections

Albania's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday acknowledged defeat in the parliamentary elections.

DP leader Lulzim Basha announced later the day he had decided to give up all his roles as DP leader to pave the way for election to choose the party's leadership.

Although Basha admitted the unprecedented defeat against the Socialist Party led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, he claimed that the parliamentary polls were marred by vote buying with dirty crime money.

"Something went wrong in the June 25 parliamentary elections ... Again, the dirty money and crime were unstoppable," Basha said. He took all responsibilities for the largest defeat since the DP's establishment.

The ruling Socialist Party garnered 48.33 percent of votes translated into 74 seats in the 140-seat parliament in Sunday's general elections, while, the DP received 28.81 percent of the votes, or 43 seats.

Several senior DP officials blamed Basha for the defeat. Over 70 DP members signed a request demanding his dismissal.

"He drafted the lists for member of parliament candidates without consulting the party members, in a clear violation of the statute and removed the DP symbols during the electoral campaign, generating an undeserved division with the idea of 'the New Republic,' they said.

Earlier, Chairman of the Central Election Commission Klement Zguri announced 1,613,087 eligible voters had taken part in the elections, and turnout stood at 46.72 percent, while the valid number of ballot papers was 1,580,778.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)