president Sali Berisha looked likely to defeat the Socialists of Prime Minister Fatos Nano. The channel stressed its forecast might not be reliable. Moisiu also condemned the rivals' premature victory claims as "contrary to the ethics code they signed and risk damaging the vote-counting and consequently the final results". About 2.8 million people were eligible to choose the country's sixth parliament since the collapse of its one-party state in 1991 after 45 years of communism. In a departure from previous on-the-spot counts which usually led to charges of cheating, all ballots were being taking under police escort to 100 counting centres. Albanians were taking their vote seriously, said U.S. Congressman Elliot Engel, an election observer. "People were staying in line in the heat. The election appeared to be going ahead smoothly." --More 2304 Local Time 2004 GMT
