Electioneering is over in Albania ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections with both parties promising a better future for the three point one million electors.

Former president and outgoing Prime Minister Sali Berisha will be looking to retain power but he faces a strong challenge from the Socialists, the former Communists. “We gather here in this square as NATO members, the Euro-Atlantic dream… we made it reality,” claimed Berisha in a final rally. The opposition is running Berisha’s Democratic party neck and neck in opinion polls, and Edi Rama, the Mayor of Tirana, has given the Socialists a more youthful image. He is promising change, but many fear this vote, like all others since 1996, will be tainted by alleged fraud. “We will win this battle because for us, the children of Socialists are as important as children of Democratic in their right for living in Albania part of European Union,” he said, just hundreds of metres away from his rival’s final meeting in the capital. 4000 hopefuls are battling it out for 140 parliamentary seats.More about: Albania

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