TIRANA (Reuters) -Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama was on course for anunprecedented fourth term in office on Monday as partial results showed his Socialist Party with a commanding lead in Sunday's parliamentaryelection.
The Socialist Party won 53% of the vote with 30% of ballots counted, results from the election commission showed, far ahead of the opposition Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, which had 34%.
Rama, in power since 2013, is the favourite to win, bolstered in part by an influential network built over 12 years in power, a recent period of healthy economic growth and a largely popular image abroad.
If the lead holds, it will give Rama four more years to continue his mission to bring the Balkan country into the European Union by 2030, a pledge that he centered his campaign aroundbut some which experts believe is overly optimistic.
It would also proveRama's popularity at home after a tumultuous third term that saw riots over a perceived crackdown on the opposition, including Berisha, and a series of corruption scandals.
"The winner is the one that was expected," said pensioner Haxhi Koleci. "They did a good job until now, we moved a lot forward from where we were in 2013."
About 200,000 Albanians living abroad voted on Sunday, the first time the diaspora has been included in the process. Full results are expected on Monday or Tuesday.
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Saad Sayeed)
