Albania's prime minister has thanked hundreds of thousands of voters who supported his Socialist Party in the last parliamentary elections, backing his pledge to take the country into the European Union in five years.

Albanian Prime minister Edi Rama has secured an unprecedented fourth term in power after his Socialist Party sailed to victory in Sunday's election, official results showed on Tuesday, although the opposition claims the vote was stolen.

The EU saw the vote as a test of the democratic maturity of the Balkan nation, by far the most Europe-oriented in the region.