Tirana - Albania's parliamentary elections apparently produced a political stalemate and was likely to have to be held again as the two main blocs won the same number of seats in the new legislature, an unofficial result on Tuesday morning showed. The coalition led by the conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party claimed 70 seats, as many as did the Tiran Mayor Edi Rama's Socialist Party and its splinter, the LSI.
However, so far only unofficial online exit polls are available. Election authorities have yet to provide official figures, or even turnout, despite the election taking place on Sunday.
The elections were to gauge Albania's democratic maturity and possibly unblock its bid to join the European Union.
International observers said the elections were flawed, but an improvement over the chaotic, violent votes the country had in the two decades since it emerged from a harsh communist regime.
The opposition however accused the authorities of tampering with ballots to swing the result in the extremely closely contested election.
Ballots from some 170 of the 4,800 polling stations, with a total 3 million registered voters, were yet to be counted Tuesday morning.
