Murder Mars Albania Parliamentary Polls

This photo taken from video provided by Top Channel shows the body of Gjon Gjoni, 53, who was shot in an exchange of gunfire close to a polling station in Lac, 37 miles (60 kilometres) north-west of capital Tirana, Sunday, June 23, 2013 as Albania is holding parliamentary elections.| Photo by : Hektor Pustina/AP

The opposition activist was killed in an exchange of gunfire that also wounded a ruling party candidate outside a polling station in Lac in northern Albania on Sunday morning as people cast their ballots in parliamentary polls seen as crucial to the country’s hopes of getting closer to EU membership.

Police said the victim was 53-year-old Gjon Pjeter Gjoni, a supporter of the opposition Socialist Movement for Integration, while Democratic Party candidate Mehill Fufi was also gravely wounded in the shooting.

Another man, Kastriot Fufi, was also injured during the shooting.

According to local media, prosecutors who are probing the shootout have issued a warrant for seven people who are believed to be involved.

The left-wing opposition described the incident as a desperate attempt by the government to intimidate voters, while the ruling Democrats characterised it as a terrorist act.

“This is an attempt to intimidate voters, to push away citizens from the ballot boxes in order to dictate the will of a minority that cannot oppose the will of the Albanian people,” said opposition leader Edi Rama.

“There is no criminal act or criminal group that can ultimately stop the people from deciding,” Rama said.

Meanwhile the head of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Ilir Meta, accused the police of collaborating with the ruling Democrats to manipulate the elections.

“We have facts that the deputy-director of the state police is part of an attempt to manipulate the elections, protecting bandits and criminals, which killed an innocent citizen in front of this polling station,” he said.

But the spokesperson for the Democratic Party, Laura Vorpsi, accused Rama and Meta of trying to exploit the death of the opposition activist for political capital.

“These necrophile politicians forgot to express condolences to the victim’s family in the tragic incident in Lac, which was a pure terrorist act against the Democratic Party candidate, Mehill Fufi,” Vorpsi told a press conference.

Albania has long history of elections marred by fraud and violence and the European Commission has repeated warnings that Sunday’s poll needs to meet international standards if Albania hope to make progress in its accession process toward the EU.

The poll is being closely scrutinised by western governments, with more than 600 international observers monitoring the voting in addition to 8,000 local observers.

Some 3,270,936 Albanians are eligible to cast ballots in 5,506 polling stations spread across the country, to elect a new parliament.

Turnout is expected to be higher than in the 2009 parliamentary elections. According to the government’s spokesperson, minister of integration Majlinda Bregu, 36 per cent of voters had cast their ballots by 3pm.