TIRANA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Albania's ruling Socialist Party (SP) is the winner of the local elections held on Sunday, the Central Election Commission (CEC) confirmed in its preliminary results made public on Wednesday.
The CEC spokesperson Drilona Hoxha said in a press statement that the vote counting was concluded across the country late Tuesday evening.
Based on the preliminary data reported by the votes counting stations, Hoxha said that from the total number of 3,536,016 Albanians eligible to vote, only 812,249 voters, or 22.97 percent of the total number of voters, participated in the voting process.
On June 30, Albanian citizens voted to elect the mayors and the municipal councils that would administer 61 cities and towns across the country in the next four years.
According to the published data in the CEC website, the second political force that stands after the SP is the Social Democratic Party, which will have more representatives in the municipal councils after the SP.
The total number of valid votes for mayor was 765,825, whereas for the municipal councils 760,933 votes.
The CEC data shows that the total number of invalid votes for mayor was 45,276 votes, whereas for municipal councils 49,986 votes.
According to the CEC, the preliminary data does not include the number of ballots damaged or cast in the wrong boxes.
Hoxha noted that in the next five days the CEC will analyze all the deposited complaints on the election procedures before issuing the final official result.
Preliminary results show that Albania's ruling Socialist Party won all but two districts in last Sunday's municipal elections that were boycotted by the main opposition parties.
In the beginning, soon after the voting closure, CEC announced that the voter's turnout was 21.6 percent.
Albania's main opposition Democratic Party and Socialist Movement for Integration, that boycotted elections, called June 30 local elections a "farce" as well as "illegal and unconstitutional."
Albanian President Ilir Meta also tried to cancel the local elections, which, according to him, would be undemocratic without the participation of the opposition parties.
