ALBANIA'S Socialist party took a strong lead in early election results in the southern rebel town of Sarande yesterday sending its jubilant armed supporters into a frenzy of celebratory shooting.
In Tirana, the Socialist Party leader, Mr Fatos Nano, claimed a sweeping election victory and suggested President Sali Berisha would have to step down. But Democratic Party officials dismissed this as "premature".
Earlier three people, including an electoral official, were murdered and four others wounded. Some voting hitches were reported as Albanians went to the polls. They were electing members to the 155 seat assembly after four months of chaos and violence.
Voting in the capital was described by one international observer as "good as any western European country". But Albanian officials said voting in other parts of the mountainous republic had not gone quite as well.
The Italian led multinational force said it was "happy" with the way the elections had taken place and called on all the Albanian parties" to accept the results.
In Sarande, after the close of polling the sound of explosions reverberated across the harbour of the Adriatic port town, which has been at the mercy of armed gangs for four months, and youths fired everything from pistols to antitank missiles into the air.
With 25 per cent of ballots counted, the Socialists had 55.5 per cent of the vote against the Democratic Party of President Berisha, which had so far gained only 7.9 per cent, Sarande's central electoral committee told reporters.
The Human Rights Party, which represents the large ethnic Greek minority in the south won 13.2 and the rest of the vote went, to smaller parties and independent candidates.
Southern Albania was the starting point for the upheaval provoked by the failure of five fraudulent investment schemes.
More than 1,500 people have died in the mayhem. Southerners say Mr Berisha is to blame for allowing the schemes to flourish.
Several incidents involving armed men were reported. The most serious was the death of Mr Burhan Misiri, head of an electoral commission in Fier, 75 km south of Tirana.
The Interior Ministry said he had been shot dead yesterday afternoon. The exact circumstances remained unclear.
However, officials from President Berisha's Democratic Party, of which Mr Misiri was a member, said he was shot by the brother of a member of the Socialist Party.
Reports emerged that voting had been suspended in some areas, or continued in others despite orders by the central electoral commission to move polling stations to different locations.
At the same time as the election a referendum is being held on whether Albania should become a constitutional monarchy.