PRAGUE — Prime Minister Sali Berisha, the candidate of the Democratic Party, appeared to be edging ahead Sunday in parliamentary elections viewed as a crucial test of Albania’s democratic credentials and readiness to join the European Union, according to preliminary exit polls.
An exit poll by Gani Bobi, a Kosovo-based research group, showed Mr. Berisha winning 47.5 percent of the vote compared with 38.8 percent for the Socialist Party and its leftist allies, led by Edi Rama, who is mayor of Tirana, the capital. Smaller center-left Socialist Movement for Integration appeared likely to gain 6.5 percent. The exit poll has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points. Analysts said it remained unclear whether Mr. Berisha’s party would have to form a coalition with other parties to attain a majority in the 140-seat Parliament.
The election pitted Mr. Berisha, a former heart surgeon whose center-right government oversaw Albania’s recent entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, against Mr. Rama, a former painter who had rejuvenated the capital’s once ugly Stalinist sprawl.
Albania, a poor southern Balkan country of 3.6 million people, is still struggling to overcome a culture of corruption and lawlessness following more than four decades of brutal dictatorship. During the election, both candidates vowed to bring Albania into the E.U. and to improve economic prospects. Albania’s gross domestic product per capita is less than $3,500.
Nearly every Albanian election since the fall of communism ushered in multiparty elections in 1991 has been contested. The elections Sunday were marked by an atmosphere of deep mutual distrust between political parties. Even before voting had been completed, the two main parties had already accused each other of electoral manipulation.
The vote — the first since the country joined NATO in April and then applied for E.U. membership — was watched closely by the European Union and the United States as a critical barometer of Albania’s political maturity. The E.U., which is already feeling overextended, is wary of admitting a poor country that it fears could bring lawlessness into the bloc.
Election monitors said it was too early to assess whether the allegations of electoral manipulation were anything more than political posturing. But Robert Bosch, director of Albanian office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is monitoring the election, told Reuters that the vote appeared to have proceeded calmly, with fewer electoral irregularities than in the past.
Nevertheless, independent monitors said there had been sporadic problems at several polling stations, including the intimidation of voters by political parties, a lack of marker ink to make sure people did not vote twice, and men voting for their wives and other family members. Monitors said they were also examining allegations that some Socialist Party officials had used pens with hidden cameras to spy on their Democratic counterparts.
The campaign was marked by isolated cases of violence, including one politician killed in a car explosion and another man fatally shot following an argument over a campaign poster.
Albanians voted for the first time under a new proportional representation system, prompting concerns that a messy and protracted coalition-forming process could plunge the country into crisis. Analysts noted that the real test of Albania’s fragile democracy would come if Mr. Berisha’s Democratic Party was forced to jockey to form a coalition government.
Albanians across the country say their most abiding desire is for the country to join the European Union, the world’s biggest trading bloc. Deprived of E.U. membership, Albanians do not benefit from the E.U.’s borderless travel, and many say they feel alienated and closed in.
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