TIRANA Two people were shot and injured Sunday at a polling station on the outskirts of the Albanian capital Tirana as legislative elections got under way, Electoral Commission Chief Ramazan Shulku said.

One voter and one poll official were injured, AFP quote him as saying.

Albania's 2.5 million voters went to the polls early Sunday in legislative elections expected to be a tight race between the ruling Socialist Party (PS) and the opposition Democratic Party (PD) of Sali Berisha.

Berisha, a former president, has accused the PS of trying to sabotage the poll, which is seen as a key to stability in this poor Balkans country.

Earlier, armed men entered a polling station and set fire to voting materials in the northern Albanian town of Shllak, a Berisha stronghold, government officials said.

Police and members of the electoral commission rushed to the scene to investigate the Shllak incident, officials from the Interior Ministry and the Electoral Commission said.