Albania goes to the polls on Sunday in parliamentary elections, with joining the EU a key ambition – while an acrimonious campaign has been marred by a deadly gunfight between supporters of rival parties.

Prime Minister Edi Rama is seeking a third term but his Socialists are facing a challenge from a dozen parties united behind the main opposition Democratic party. 

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And politicians of all stripes face a battle with voter apathy in a country where the losers habitually accuse the winners of vote-rigging and campaigns are marked by entrenched personal rivalries.

On the eve of the election, the rivalry between the two parties turned deadly when a row over alleged vote-buying descended into a gunfight in a city near the capital, leaving one Socialist supporter dead and four other people injured. 

But who are the candidates, what are the issues and what's likely to happen?

Prime Minister Edi Rama

Left-wing leader Edi Rama is a former basketball player who went to art school in Paris and is seeking his third term in office. He is promising to "defeat the pandemic," repair damage from a deadly 2019 earthquake, finish major road and airport projects, complete institutional reforms and bring the country closer to EU membership.

The 56-year-old is also still a keen artist, hanging many of his works on the walls of his office and holding occasional international exhibitions.

Rama cut his political teeth in student protests. He took over at the helm of the Socialist Party in 2005 in the middle of an 11-year stint as mayor of the capital Tirana, eventually becoming prime minister in 2013.

His right-wing opponents regularly accuse him of links with organized crime, but he has said he would withdraw from political life if anyone proved links with corruption or crime.

Lulzim Basha, opposition leader

Lawyer Lulzim Basha is head of the center-right Democratic Party and a protege of veteran powerbroker Sali Berisha.

Both men are opponents of Rama, with Basha leading a bitter anti-government offensive during 2019 including a boycott of parliament and street protests.

The 46-year-old projects an image of a dedicated family man, his wife's social media posts revealing he likes to cook and enjoys reading to his two daughters. He claimed in a recent book that he was reading Tolstoy at the age of four.

Basha, who has held several government posts and was, like Rama, mayor of Tirana, has pledged to make Albania "a European country where the law is respected."

He has joined forces with about a dozen parties from across the political spectrum to boost his chances of forming a government after Sunday's vote, saying he wants to be the "guarantor of a real and efficient independence of the judicial system."

Ilir Meta, leftist president

A former member of the Socialist Party, President Ilir Meta quit to form his own leftist movement and is strongly against Rama, whom he accuses of "tyranny."

The 52-year-old, who served as a socialist prime minister from 1999 to 2002 and was chosen as president by a socialist-led parliament, has said he will quit his post if Rama wins "in a fair vote."

He has accused the Socialists of trying to manipulate the result of Sunday's poll before voting had even begun. Meta, who was a weightlifter in his youth, often uses social media to profess his support for Scottish football team Glasgow Celtic, forming Albania's first supporters' club last year.

His Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) has often been a kingmaker but has not tasted power since 2017, when the Socialists won enough seats to govern alone. Since then, the LSI, now led by Meta's wife Monika Kryemadhi, has allied with the center-right opposition Democrats.

What are the main issues?

The country of 2.8 million people is among the poorest in Europe and the coronavirus pandemic has made matters worse, with the vital tourism sector suffering a huge slump.

Albania is also two years into a political crisis, with some opposition MPs refusing to take their seats in parliament alleging that the last election in 2017 – won outright by the Socialists – was rigged.

With such bitterness baked into Albania's politics, officials are attempting to stave off the usual rows over vote-rigging by using an electronic system of voter identification.

All sides claim to be pro-EU – Albania has been an official candidate country since 2014 – and promise to complete reforms requested by the bloc, including an overhaul of the judicial system. 

The pandemic and the economy are at the center of the debates. Bitter personal enmity between key figures prompted EU envoys to issue a joint statement calling for a campaign "without inflammatory rhetoric or hate speech."

What do opinion polls say?

Opinion polls suggest Rama's Socialists have a lead over their rivals - a recent IPSOS/Top Channel poll put the Socialist Party at about 48 percent, with the opposition Democratic Party at about 40 percent.

But the last few days "will be decisive" as swing voters make up their minds, said political commentator Lutfi Dervishi.

Full results could take days to come out following the end of voting at 7 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) on Sunday.