Albania’s Socialist opposition ended a three-day protest in the capital, Tirana, with demands to the Prime Minister that contested election ballot boxes be opened.

The mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, who led the protest, issued a 10-day deadline to Prime Minister Sali Berisha to allow the boxes to be opened, for a partial recount of disputed votes cast in the June parliamentary election.

Thousands had gathered throughout the weekend in the center of the capital, waving banners and projecting slogans reading "Where is my vote?" and "Open the ballot boxes!" onto the walls of Berisha’s offices.

The opposition has boycotted the Albanian parliament since June, claiming that a recount of the votes would put them in power. Currently, Berisha's Democrats have just 70 seats in the 140-seat parliament, and the Socialists 66. The Democrats rule with support from the four Socialist Integration Movement seats.

"Unless the ballot boxes are opened, we will not just refuse to return to parliament, but shall escalate our protest. If the boxes are not opened, we shall powerfully call for the government to go and call for snap elections," Rama said, threatening a nationwide protest.

"There won't be an opening of the election ballot boxes because the state institutions cannot be above the legal ones, which decided there there will not be an opening," stated a defiant Berisha on Albanian state television.

Rama has claimed that Berisha had stifled the judiciary, distorted the media and ruined free competition. Each man accuses the other of corruption.

Western observers had declared the June vote was an improvement on previous Albanian elections but had fallen short of the highest international standards.

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