ELECTION CONDITIONS No decision is made on mobile ballot boxes to help the confined CEC EXCLUDES THOUSANDS OF VOTERS Around 50,000 people with blood-feud problems or other conflicts will not go to the polls, around 10,000 blind people for whom there is no special ballot, as well as thousands of sick people ► Pages 2-3

PS CLOSES THE CAMPAIGN EDI RAMA: KATRAGJYSH, GO AWAY, WE WILL FREE THE PRISONERS FROM YOU ► Page 5

LSI RALLY IN BERAT META CLOSES THE CAMPAIGN: THERE IS NO POST-ELECTION COALITION WITH SALI ► Page 8

Analysis BY GENC KONDI Sali Berisha, the karmic judgment behind him After eight years in power, Berisha seems set to hand over the baton at a time when the engine of his reforms has long been feeling a lack of oxygen. The reforms, devised by specialists brought together in 2005 within the KOP, have long since run out of steam as a result of the gasping of a government captured by corruption and with confused, improvised definitions of priorities in investment and the distribution of budget expenditures. At the end of eight years in power, the balance is unbelievable: poverty in the country is increasing. This is what the World Bank notes. Albania ranks third in extreme poverty and second in moderate poverty in the Balkan region, according to the World Bank’s latest study. The crisis has affected the rise in inequality and the rise in poverty in the country. The statistics presented these days by the WB, relating to different periods, starting from 2007-2010, show that poverty in the Balkan region has increased. Albania has not been spared from the phenomenon either; according to WB figures, it ranks third in the region for extreme poverty, after Kosovo and Macedonia. Meanwhile, the rate of moderate poverty (meaning living on 2.5-5 dollars a day) places the country second, after Kosovo. This has also been influenced to a large extent by the fact that food in our country has become much more expensive... ► continues on page 12

DOSSIER How Albanians converted to Islam Patriots and traitors within the principalities TIRANA PAOLO PETTA Modern Albania is a not very religious country, but still, for the most part, Muslim. It is believed that the mass conversion to the Islamic faith did not take place before the 17th century. As for... ► Pages 10-11

“WEEKEND” ► Pages 13-17 Two years of holidays amid cultural heritage Saint Petersburg, the Magic of the White Nights

... always one step ahead... Nachos and Mexican chips served with the appropriate sauces and cheese Address: Tirana-Durrës highway, km 7, Yrshek- Tirana; Tel: 42 406 500; 042 406 501; Fax 042 406 502; e-mail: neranxi@neranxi.com; www.neranxi.com

BRUSSELS ► Page 7 “Speak Up”: Media, let the alarm bells ring

ANALYSIS ► Pages 18-21 Tirana County, the oasis of pragmatic mandates

ELECTION ► Pages 6-7 Rama attacks from ‘Klan’, Berisha from ‘Top-Channel’

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