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Independent candidate Iuliana Gorea-Costin held a press conference in the Mayoralty, with all the candidates except for the Communist one being invited. Valeriu Cosarciuc of the Braghis staff and Valerii Klimenko were present. Iuliana Gorea-Costin pointed: a) number of voter certificates is very small, fact that would deprive many voters for the right to vote. At the moment 54 polling stations received only one voter certificate; b) private and public cable audio-visual institutions were not asked to comply with the legal requirements on the media coverage, that enables many to breach the law in favour of the Party of Communists (TNT, Ren TV, NTV, Rif TV; c) Chair of the Chisinau District Electoral Council, Ion Stratulat, violated article 35 (6) of the Electoral Code “local government is obliged to provide electoral bodies with premises and equipment for vote tabulation”, and article 32 (2) “decisions are passed by the majority vote of the members entitled to deliberative vote”; d) Chair of the Chisinau Municipal Council submitted personally an address to the Ministry of Information Technology asking their branch “Molddata” to tabulate election results. That runs against the law, as it is the responsibility of the local government.

Gorea-Costin demanded CEC to: a) distribute a sufficient number of voter certificates so as to allow all those interested to take part in elections; b) cancel its decision entrusting the Ministry of Information Technology to tabulate election results; c) oust the Chairman of the Chisinau District Electoral Council Ion Stratulat; d) make public the contract concluded with the Ministry, its amount and who would pay for the services rendered.

As for the Chisinau District Electoral Council, she waived the following demands: a) open many more polling stations for the students; b) propose Chair of the Parliament and Prime-Minister to resign during the electoral campaign, if they choose to electioneer in favour of one of the candidates; c) remind Ministry of Interior, State Guard Service, Municipal police that under the law they should be neutral and therefore, oust its employees who during work hours posted electoral ads; d) ask Party of Communists to wipe their symbol from bus stations and shops of the Botanica sector; e) apply administrative sanctions to NTV, TNT, Rif TV, Ren TV for unlawful coverage of the campaign; d) sanction “Teleradio-Moldova” leadership for tarnishing the image of electoral contestants when distorting the reality.

In his turn, Valerii Klimenko pointed that police was ready to take by assault observers from CIS residing in an apartment on Columna street. According to Klimenko, professional observers from CIS came to Chisinau to “prevent attempts by the Communists to rig the election results in favour of their candidate”.

A while later, Transdnistrian Official Press Agency “Olvia-press” reported that police “arrested lawyers working for Valerii Klimenko, candidate running for the Chisinau mayoralty…After being illegally detained, police released them, however confiscated their notebooks and other recording equipment”. Olvia-press views the event as “a violation of democratic norms and a real theft. This planned action is an evidence of the political repressions in Moldova”.

Transdnistrian Official Press Agency “Olvia-press” reports that “at the Moldovan-Transdnistrian border a group of 100 activists of the international youth corporation «Proriv» (Breakthrough) protested against eventual frauds in the July 10 elections”. According to the press agency, “Proriv” was informed on the would-be frauds by the Moldovan “Avanta” organisation. According to the same source, police threatened the leader of “European values” organisation, Mark Pevelkovschii, that he would be persecuted if he attempts to enter the soil of the Republic of Moldova. In addition, police stopped all the cars to confiscate the materials distributed by the protesters.

The same agency reported that at 13:30 activists of the Ukrainian “Bratstvo” organisation staged a protest rally in front of the Moldovan Government building “against the totalitarian regime of the Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and would-be frauds in elections, thus responding to the call of their counterpart Avante”. Protesters burned the puppets representing Vladimir Voronin and George Bush. Police arrested seven “Bratstvo” activists. Olvia-Press immediately contacted “Bratstvo” leader in Kiev, Dimitro Korcinskii, who declared “today it is has become quite clear that there is a totalitarian regime and terror in politics in Moldova. Only by resorting to police and special services could the Communist dictator Vladimir Voronin stay in power. We wouldn’t leave our arrested comrades without support, we would start civic protest actions in front of RM Embassy in Kiev”.

Certainly, there is a string of well-coordinated actions on the eve of July 10 elections. Recently, during a visit to Republic of Moldova Modest Kolerov, a councillor to the Russian President, visited and “blessed” “Proriv” organisation, which according to Olvia-press unites 13 organisations that aim “to consolidate historic relations between Russia and Moldova, fight Voronin’s totalitarian regime, and recognise Transdnistria”. Dimitro Korcinskii himself is a well-known figure in Moldova. He ran in the 2004 presidential elections in Ukraine, in the second round he supported Yanukovich against Yushchenko.

CEC accredited 356 national observers to monitor elections in the 14 localities, out of which LADOM (305), Helsinki Committee (41), ADEPT (10). International observers arriving to Moldova would represent OSCE and Council of Europe. There is no indication that other international observers will be arriving for new local elections, however last week “Kommersant Plus” reported that CIS-EMO, organisation specialised in monitoring elections in CIS, applied for accreditation. The newspaper featured an interview with Alexei Kocetkov the leader of CIS-EMO, reading that “an exotic regime is ruling in Moldova” that obstructed foreign observers. Kocetkov talked in very negative terms of the Moldova public and electoral bodies.