Albania holds local polls, key to launch EU membership talks

AP-Albanians have started voting in local municipal elections, a key step in their efforts to launch membership negotiations with the European Union.

Last year, Albania was granted EU candidate status and now Tirana is expecting to get approval for the launch of full membership negotiations.

Besides tangible results in the rule of law, the justice system and the fight against crime and corruption, Brussels also expects free and fair elections in post-communist Albania, where they have always suffered from violence or manipulation and political squabbling.

"The June 21 election test, almost a year after getting the country's candidate status, should serve as our main investment in launching the membership negotiations with the European Union," President Bujar Nishani said Friday in a call for participation.

About 3.4 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the country's seventh local elections since the fall of communism in 1990 to elect 61 mayors and 1,595 municipal counsellors.

Voting started Sunday at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and ends at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT).

About 6,000 police officers were deployed near 5,300 polling stations and hundreds of army special troops were guarding government buildings and embassies.

The focus is for the mayor of Tirana, where a 37-party coalition led by Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialists has nominated former social affairs minister Erion Veliaj, while the 15-party opposition led by outgoing Mayor Lulzim Basha's Democrats tapped parliamentarian Halim Kosova as its candidate.

After casting their ballots, both leaders — Rama and Basha, who have two years in their respective posts — called on Albanians to participate in the vote.

"Who does not vote is not entitled to complain," Rama said.

Around 200 international observers are monitoring the polls. They will report preliminary findings on Monday.

The law says results must be revealed no later than three days after the vote.