TIRANA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Albania's ruling Socialist Party chairman Edi Rama pledged to undertake sweeping reforms that would speed up Albania's path towards European Union membership.
Rama, who will serve another four-year term as country's Prime Minister after a landslide victory in the June 25 parliamentary elections, made the remarks Tuesday evening as thousands of Socialist Party supporters gathered at the capital's main square to celebrate the victory, which gave Rama 74 seats in Albania's 140-seat parliament.
"Albanians spoke. They decided to give us the parliamentary majority so that we govern alone and show what we can do. These results will bring us closer to the accession talks with the European Union, which we expect to be commenced by the end of this year," Rama told the crowd after Chief election officer Klement Zguri confirmed the final official preliminary results from Sunday's vote confirming that the Socialists won 48 percent of votes or 74 seats.
On the other hand, he said that after first term, much remains to be done, noting that new government will get back to work immediately, to continue reforms, and to expand the economy and create jobs.
He also vowed to clean justice system here from corrupt judges, create more jobs and tackle the cannabis trade.
In the meantime, Rama extended the hand of cooperation to the opposition and thanked his opponent Basha for agreeing to put Albania first with the May deal that allowed the election to proceed.
"It is time to put Albania before our parties, the country's interest ahead of our political ones," he said.
The governing Socialists agreed in May to give the opposition Democrats a greater role in overseeing election transparency after opposition's three-month parliamentary boycott.
Six ministers of ruling coalition were replaced by six opposition's nominees who would be a guarantee to hold free elections.
In the 140-seat parliament, main opposition Democratic Party will have 43 seats while the Socialist Integration Movement (SIM), which won 14 percent of votes, will have 19 seats.
Turnout in Sunday's election fell to 46.7 percent, 7 points lower than in 2013.
International observers who monitored the polling hailed the generally calm campaign and voting, but also noted that ongoing political fights had a negative effect on country's democracy.
In a statement after first preliminary results, Federica Mogherini, EU's foreign policy chief, and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn greeted Albania for holding peaceful and regular elections while they urged the new government to continue the reform process.
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