The European Commission is not completely satisfied with the Albanian parliamentary elections on Sunday.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said there has been some progress but added that there was still much work to be done. He pointed to campaign violence and procedural violations. In April, Albania applied for the status of official EU membership candidate.

Preliminary results put Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party in the lead by a narrow margin. Opinion polls during the election also suggested a victory for the Democratic Party. The country's electoral commission has only counted one-quarter of the votes so far, and the final results will be announced a few days later than announced earlier. The elections were closely monitored by the European Union. Prime Minister Berisha says the elections were free and fair, but the Socialist Party claims there were irregularities.