The ballot boxes are coming today the Albanians for the parliamentary elections in which the Prime Minister Edi Rama claims a fourth term.

The leader of the Socialist Party, who has been in power since 2013, is considered a favorite to win his opponent, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party.

Rama has been confronted in recent months with a series of scandals. Among them is the arrest of his ally, Mayor Tirana Erion Veliai, who is accused of corruption and money laundering.

In the last week of the election campaign, Edi Rama reiterated his promise of Albania’s accession to the EU by the end of the decade. “We will secure our fourth term and will not lose a day for the goal of Albania’s integration into the EU by 2030,” he said at a gathering of supporters on Friday.

However, many young voters are said to have been tired of leaders such as Berisha and Rama, who ruled the country after the fall of the Communist regime in 1990.

Polls show that 60 -year -old Rama has a significant lead over 80 -year -old Berisha, who has been weakened by charges of corruption. But the Socialist Party may need to support smaller parties to maintain the parliamentary majority.

The polls open at 7am (local time, 08:00 in Greece) and will close at 7pm (local time, 20:00 in Greece).

“I will vote for new faces, because politicians like Rama and Berisha have been in the spotlight for three decades and are simply alternating.”said 21 -year -old Arber Tsazimi.

An finance student named Erisa says she does not intend to vote and will seek her luck abroad, such as hundreds of thousands of Albanians who have migrated over the last decade, many of them to neighboring countries. “I just think about how I leave the country to study and then stay there, never come back,” he explains.

As far as the economy is concerned, Edi Rama has gone well. The annual growth rate of 4% in the period 2022-2024, thanks to the impetus of trade with the EU and tourism, exceeded other Balkan countries, the World Bank said.

Analysts, however, point out that corruption remains a huge problem. Criminal gangs earn billions of euros from drug trafficking abroad, revenue that brings back to Albania to flush them through investment in construction and real estate.