THE GAME WITH THE NORTH-SOUTH STRONGHOLDS Voters are removed from PS areas, residents with fictitious names are added for PD VOTER IMPORT FOR 2013, BASHA'S VICTORY MODEL POPULATION INCREASES, PS: WE WILL INVESTIGATE. PD: LET THEM MOVE In the photo: The map of the distribution of mandates after the June 2009 elections and the redistribution the government seeks to make for the 2013 elections KUKËS PD-3 PS-1 SHKODËR PD-7 PS-4 LEZHË PD-4 PS-3 DURRËS PD-7 (+1) PS-5 LSI-1 TIRANË PS-15 (+1) PD-15 LSI-1 PR-1 DIBËR PD-4 PS-2 ELBASAN PS-7 PD-7 KORÇË PS-6 PD-6 (-1) BERAT PS-4 PD-3 LSI-1 (-1) FIER PS-8 PD-7 LSI-1 VLORË PS-6 PD-4 LSI-1 GJIROKASTËR PS-3 PD-2 PDIU-1 News The Ministry of Interior justified the transfer of parliamentary seats from PS stronghold areas in the South to its own stronghold areas in the North with the population increase in the latter. According to the government, the North has had population growth, but only in the municipalities governed by PD, while in the South there is a population decrease. The scheme of fictitiously importing voters is similar to the one used to secure the mandate in Tirana in May 2011. TIRANA Arben Rrozhani When in Tirana the PD candidate, Lulzim Basha, managed to be only 10 votes behind the PS candidate, Edi Rama, in the race for mayor in the local elections of 8 May 2011, election experts were left shocked. How had PD, which had grown in the eyes of the electorate, managed this, with a candidate accused of... continued on pages 2-5 In the photo: The map of the distribution of mandates after the June 2009 elections and the redistribution the government seeks to make for the 2013 elections

CEREMONY AT PARLIAMENT Pages 6-7 They accused them of being murderers and thieves, PD honors them for the centenary Nano, Bufi, Meta, Fino, Meksi, Rugova, Arbnori and Hajdari are honored

Comment BY AFRIM KRASNIQI Flags, speeches and history In the TV commercials in the days leading up to the 100th anniversary of the Albanian state, several elements dominate: ads with flags, political news and speeches about the celebrations, and a tendency to uncover and create history. Rarely before have citizens, the media, the public and politics invested so much in the flag market, most of them outside the legal standard for the official shape of the flag. For several weeks the political parties argued over the authorship of the initiative “one balcony, one flag” and, after the balconies were filled, each side counted not only each flag but each family as its supporter. Others went even further, surrounding Lana with flags, filling trees, building facades, and even car windows. A virtual patriotism, for entirely electoral purposes, with highly civic means and behavior, but ultimately with a positive result: it drew children’s attention and created a red-and-black color scheme, dominant over every other color offered by politics, concrete cities, dirty rivers, used cars and socialist-style buildings. In the absence of success in private business, economic decline, crisis in the management of public assets and rising unemployment, dealing with flags and the profits in the flag market marked a success of... continued on page 22

“I am coming to Vlorë, I hope you fulfill the dream” Page 10

A1 REPORT the origin of the news

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