Stakes high in Albanian election as West expects free vote

Albania\'s parliamentary elections on Sunday will not just decide whether Prime Minister Sali Berisha will gain a third mandate but also open the green light to accession to the European Union (EU) if they meet international standards. Over two decades, the small Balkan country of 2.8 million people has seen its progress to the EU bogged down because of disputed elections which have caused boycotts of parliament and even fatal confrontations in the streets. Sunday\'s contest will pit the Democratic Party of Berisha, the dominant figure of local politics over two decades, against the opposition Socialist Party led by Edi Rama, a former mayor of the capital Tirana. Both have been crisscrossing Albania months before the campaign started officially to try to appeal for votes by promising jobs, tax cuts and boosting the economy, whose gross domestic product (GDP) fell to its lowest level of 1.6 percent growth since 1997. Berisha\'s Democratic Party leads the Alliance for Employment, Prosperity and European Integration, a coalition of 25 centrist and centre-right parties. Creating coalitions is indispensable under Albania\'s proportional regional voting system. Berisha claims of having made Albania a member of NATO four years ago, helped the country grow at around 6 percent until the economic crisis cut those rates in half and of raising wages and pensions while cutting the tax burden. He blames Rama for obstructing the path to Europe by failing to vote the necessary legislation. The Socialist say Berisha\'s failure is written in the very name of his coalition promising jobs, well-being and a place in the EU - the things he did not deliver in eight years. Rama\'s Socialists have grouped 37 opposition parties around themselves, including the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) which was a partner of the Berisha government before it quit in April this year. Rama tells he will apply his model of governance that change the face of the capital Tirana to the whole of Albania and has promised tax relief for small business and a more equitable tax system as well as an uplift of the education and health systems. Both Rama and Meta told a joint news conference on Friday they did not just want to win but win with full dignity. The lingering dispute over opposition\'s empty seats in the CEC, the reliability of voters\' lists and ID cards as well as allegations of coercion on public sector employees and vote-buying have cast a shadow in the run-up to the polls. The EU warned they were \"a crucial test for the country\'s democratic institutions and its progress towards the European Union\" and it sought \"international and European standards\" in the polls. \"In this context, it is also key that the political leaders find a way, acceptable to all, to make the Central Electoral Commission fully operational,\" said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. \"We recall that it is the joint responsibility of all Albanian political leaders and parties to reinforce the confidence and trust of the public in the electoral process and create conditions for election results to be accepted by all,\" said Ashton and Fule. A poll of more than 1,600 voters, released in early May, put the Socialist-led coalition well ahead with 49 percent, against the Democratic Party coalition\'s 40 percent, while both New Democratic Spirit, a party formed by former president Bamir Topi, and the nationalistic Red and Black Alliance would get 5.5 percent.