June 25 (SeeNews) - Albania's Socialist Party (PS), led by prime minister Edi Rama, won Sunday's regular general election in the country, local media reported quoting exit polls.
It is still unclear, however, if PS will have enough seats in parliament to form a cabinet on its own.
The PS won between 45 and 49% of the votes against 30-34% for its main opponent, the Democratic Party (PD), led by Lulzim Basha, exit polls conducted by Italian research centre IPR Marketing and quoted by Albanian TV broadcaster Ora News, showed.
Third came the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), the junior coalition partner in Rama's government, with 11-15%.
Voter turnout was low, at 43.83%, even though polling stations remained open for an hour longer, Ora News reported, quoting data from the state election commission.
The election day coincided with the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Fitr, with temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.
The elections, initially scheduled for June 18, were postponed by a week under an agreement reached last month between the government and the opposition. Under the deal the opposition, which had refused to take part in the elections and had boycotted parliament sessions since February, returned to parliament and registered for the elections. In exchange, the government agreed to the appointment of a caretaker cabinet, in which Rama remained prime minister, to organise the vote.
A total of 18 parties and coalitions are competing for 140 seats in parliament.
Members of parliament are elected for a four-year term.
At the previous parliamentary elections held in June 2013, PS defeated PD, then led by Sali Berisha, who served as prime minister for two successive terms between 2005 and 2013.