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Socialist-led coalition ahead in Albania's local elections

Xinhua, June 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Preliminary results unveiled Tuesday evening from local elections of Albania showed the Socialist-led governing coalition is ahead in most municipalities, including the capital city Tirana.

Socialist candidate Erion Veliaj won the municipality of Tirana, with a difference of votes of nearly 42,000 against his opponent, Halim Kosova.

The candidate of the right-wing coalition in Tirana, Halim Kosova, in his first declaration after the victory of his opponent, Erion Veliaj, thanked the staff and congratulated the winning candidate.

The counting of votes ended in 59 out of 61 municipalities on Tuesday evening. Some 44 municipalities were won by the left-wing, 14 municipalities were won by the right-wing coalition and the Municipality of Finiq has been won by the candidate of Mega, Leonidha Kristo.

Socialist Party leader and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama considered the local elections as "the fairest, freest and best" in Albania's history.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Rama declared that he never doubted the support of citizens for the government's reforms, but the local elections on June 21 is an incentive to deepen them and the measures that accompany them with the greatest determination.

He considered the elections as a loss of the cause of the opposition, which saw June 21 as a referendum for government's reforms.

Moreover, Rama listed a series of problems that have usually been noticed during the electoral campaign, which, according to him, did not happen in these elections.

He greeted all the winners, particularly the nine female mayors, eight belonging to the left-wing coalition and one to the right wing in Shkodra. Enditem