TIRANA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Albania's ruling Democratic Party claimed on Wednesday that it has won the country's weekend parliamentary elections, but the opposition cried foul and accused the Democrats of stealing the victory.

    "Our alliance will govern Albania for next four years," Democratic Party spokeswoman Majlinda Bregu told a press conference, urging the election authorities to confirm their victory.

    However, the opposition Socialists cried foul, accusing the Democrats of attempting to steal a victory.

    "They don't have the 71 mandates (that are needed for a new government) and are calculating some of ours as theirs," the Socialists spokesman Ditmir Bushati quipped.

    With 98 percent of ballot boxes counted, the Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Sali Berisha gained 48.01 percent, against 44.25 percent of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama's Socialists.

    And the leftist LSI, a breakaway from the Socialists, came third with 5.5 percent, preliminary results from Albania's Central Election Commission showed.

    There are still about 100 ballot boxes waiting to be counted and the counting process has been blocked as the two main camps accused each other of tampering with ballots to swing the result in the extremely closely contested election.

    It is still not clear whether the alliance led by Berisha could secure 71 seats in the parliament, the number needed to govern on his own.

    Unofficial calculations show the Democrats have won 70 of Parliament's 140 seats, while the Socialists have gained 66, and the LSI, who is said to be willing to team up with the Socialists, has four seats.

    Central Election Commission spokesman Leonard Olli said it was too early to claim victory while the ballot counting is still under way.

    "We have not brought out the final results," he said.