TIRANA - Nearly seven weeks after a disputed election, Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano is preparing to reliquish power to his arch-rival Sali Berisha, an aide said on Friday.
The aide told Reuters Nano had called on his cabinet to reflect on "what had been accomplished in eight years of Socialist rule" and put files in order before bowing out, probably next week.
"The philosophy of the exercise is peaceful transition," he said.
Nano's orders to the cabinet to get ready for a handover of power emerged a day before re-runs of the July 3 vote were scheduled to take place in three constituencies where the results were legally challenged.
Berisha's Democrats have already secured 78 seats in the 140-seat parliament with the help of allies including two former backers of Nano, so the weekend re-runs could not dent their majority even if the Socialists won all three.
The real question for weeks has been whether Nano would give up his delaying tactics and concede or would reject the election outcome, triggering a political crisis.
Albania's sixth election since communism collapsed in 1990 was watched closely by the West to see if its democracy was mature enough to eventually join the Europe Union and NATO.
Monitors initially said the vote was partly free and fair, but hundreds of complaints cast a shadow over it, delaying the final result and the process of transition.
Berisha, the country's first post-communst president, and Nano, once a finance minister in the communist government, have been bitter rivals since Albania's switch to democracy.
President Alfred Moisiu is expected to give Berisha an official mandate to form a government after the Central Election Commission certifies the full results early next week.
Berisha has already chosen his team, cutting the number of ministries to 14 from 20. He has pledged to stamp out corruption and accelerate economic reforms.
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