Albanian split deepens as Socialists force through election of president | Reuters

By Benet Koleka | TIRANA TIRANA Albania's Socialist party used its majority in parliament to force through the election of a new president of the Balkan country on Friday, leaving its politics polarised as the opposition maintains a two-month-old boycott.The new president, Ilir Meta, has twice served briefly as a Socialist prime minister before forming a breakaway party that for the past eight years has alternately played kingmaker to both main parties.The opposition Democratic Party and its allies accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of being a hypocrite for handing the presidency to a man he once accused of being "the symbol of everything rotten happening in Albania".Meta, 48, said it was the opposition boycott that prompted him to accept the role. "We should try to find consensus so that Albania does not become like Macedonia," he said referring to protesters' violent storming of parliament in the neighbouring country late on Thursday. The constitution calls for Albania's president to be elected by parliament with three-fifths of the vote

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