TIRANA, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Albania's opposition Democratic Party headed by former President Sali Berisha led in Sunday's parliamentary elections, the official results showed on Wednesday.

    According to Albania's election law, 100 deputies in the 140-seat unicameral parliament are elected directly from the 100 constituencies in the country, while the rest 40 seats are distributed to the parties and coalitions according to the proportion of votes they win.

    Official results from the 44 constituencies released by the Central Elections Commission (CEC) showed the democrats already won 31 seats, while the ruling Socialist Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Fatos Nano won only 13.

    The voting was conducted on Sunday and the process went along with some sporadic incidents, during one of which a monitor of the Republic Party was killed.

    About 1.6 million voters had cast their ballots and voter turnout stood at 56 percent, the CEC said.

    The preliminary results of the elections had been scheduled to be released on Monday, but it has been delayed as the counting process has not been completed in time.

    The international monitors, mainly from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), presented on Monday a preliminary report on the election, saying the voting had complied with international standards for democratic elections although there were problems like the ambiguities regarding the identification of voters.

    But several candidates of the Socialist Party, including the three incumbent ministers of foreign affairs, economy and public order, have appealed to the CEC over the election results, saying there were "serious problems" during the voting and counting processes in their constituencies. Enditem