Albania Socialist Party Winning Parliamentary Election With About 50% of Votes

Albania's ruling Socialist Party is winning the parliamentary election, held on Sunday, gaining about 50 percent of votes, the country's Central Election Commission said after a relatively small amount of bulletins were counted.

BELGRADE (Sputnik) — According to the Commission, the Democratic Party has gained about 27 percent of votes.

A total of 18 parties are participating in the elections, with over 3 million voters registered and 5,300 polling stations set up across the country. The vote turnout was the lowest for over the last 25 years, as only 45 percent of registered voters came to the polling stations.

Observers say that such a low vote turnout may have been caused by Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, as well as by extremely hot weather in Albania.

According to reports, numerous violations were registered during the election.

A political party must gain 3 percent in order to get into the country's 140-seat single-chamber parliament, while a coalition needs at least 5 percent of votes.