Shooting incident as Albanians go to the polls

(Vatican Radio) An opposition activist was killed in an apparently politically motivated shooting in Albania on Sunday during parliamentary elections that observers said could determine whether one of Europe's poorest countries has a chance of joining the European Union. Albanian police said 53-year Socialist activist Gjon Gjoni died "after being shot in an exchange of fire" with the candidate of the rival governing Democratic Party.
Candidate Mhill Fufi, who is 49, and other man were injured in the clashes near a polling station in the city of Lac, outside the capital Tirana, police said.
The involvement of a candidate of his party in the gun battle came as another setback for the country's conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
He is seeking a third four-year term in Sunday's parliamentary elections, but he face a tough challenge from Socialist leader and former Tirana mayor Edi Rama.
Once one of the world's hardest-line Communist countries, Albania joined the NATO military alliance in 2009.
But it has failed to gain even candidate status from the European Union because since 1991 it never held a ballot deemed fully free and fair.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule has warned that failure again would further set back Albania's ambitions to join the European Union.
"We have repeatedly stressed that concluding the parliamentary elections in June in line with European and international standards, is essential for further progress towards the European Union," he told reporters.
Albania voted Sunday despite an ongoing dispute over the country's election commission that remains dominated by Prime Minister Berisha's allies.
His failure to resolve the dispute was condemned by the United States and EU and has raised concerns that the final election results will never be known and that Albania wil enter a period of political uncertainty.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has sent a team of election monitors to the troubled Balkan nation, which has 3.3 million registered voters, many of them living and working abroad. Listen to this report by Stefan Bos