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The Independent Journalism Centre has released the forth monitoring report on media coverage of the electoral campaign for the general local elections during May 30 — June 12, 2011. According to the report, no important changes were observed in the conduct of the monitored media outlets:

• The private national TV channel Prime TV respected professional and ethical standards while covering electoral issues, but lightly advantaged the PDM;
• The private national TV channel NIT openly promoted the PCRM, was a political partisan, promoted an aggressive journalistic language, used pictures which breach professional and deontological principles;
• The TV channels Euro TV and Jurnal TV proved a balanced conduct, without committing serious violations of professional and deontological standards, but lightly advantaged the PL candidate running for Chisinau mayor’s seat;
• The TV channel N4 respected deontological and professional campaign coverage standards, but lightly advantaged the PLDM;
• The newspaper Adevarul fairly covered the end of the campaign, without advantaging any electoral candidate.
• The newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau did not commit evident violations of professional and deontological standards, but lightly advantaged the PL candidate;
• The newspaper Timpul de Dimineata actively covered the electoral campaign, did not commit grave violations of ethical and professional principles, but advantaged the PL candidate and disadvantaged the PCRM candidate.
• The newspapers Moldova Suverana and Nezavisimaya Moldova made an open partisanship to support the PCRM candidate and criticise the PL candidate.

(Source: CJI)

The media watchdog CCA has released a monitoring report on coverage of the electoral campaign for the June 5 general local elections by eight television stations (during May 2 — June 5). According to the report:

• The TV station Moldova 1 did not commit serious violations of the Broadcasting Code;
• The TV station Prime cited several sources while covering conflicting situations and did not breach the legislation in force;
• The TV station NIT constantly provided a biased coverage of a single party, the PCRM. It covered in a negative light the member parties of the ruling alliance and their candidates. NIT was not equidistant in news programmes and made an open propaganda for the PCRM;
• The TV channel Euro TV Chisinau was the only media institution which did not violate legal regulations;
• The TV station N4 did not commit any derogations from legal regulations, its reports on electoral campaign did not raise concern;
• The TV channel TV 7 provided an unbiased coverage of electoral campaign, did not breach the Broadcasting Code but deviated from the CEC Regulation. It lightly advantaged the Government and the PLDM during electoral programmes;
• The TV station Jurnal TV covered political characters and electoral candidates running for the June 5 general local elections in a balanced and unbiased manner, but did not maintain this trend all campaign-long. CCA publicly warned Jurnal TV for certain breaches;
• The private station Publika TV provided a fair and unbiased coverage of political characters and electoral candidates running for local elections, but deviated from the CEC Regulation. It covered many political characters in news programmes throughout the monitored period. Publika used a neutral tonality, but tended to criticise AIE and PL.

(Source: CCA)

According to data provided by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), the number of voters included into supplementary lists at the general local elections on June 5, 2011 is on the decline, compared with the 2007 local elections:

At elections for municipal (Chisinau, Balti) and district councils:

• 3.62 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2007
• 1.51 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2011

At elections for city (municipal Comrat), village (commune) councils:

• 4.50 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2007
• 1.74 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2011

At elections for city halls, Comrat municipality, mayoralties of villages (communes):

• 4.50 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2007
• 1.74 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2011

At elections for mayor-general of Chisinau municipality:

• 66 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2007
• 14 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2011

At elections for mayor of Balti municipality:

• 74 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2007
• 18 percent of voters were included into supplementary lists in 2011

Citing the international practice, CEC concludes that the voter lists this year are better. (Source: CEC)

On the morning of June 16, PL councillor Oleg Cernei revealed some documents which would confirm that PCRM councillor Anatolie Tofan raped and killed a minor in 1988, was sentenced to a 10-year jail term and served his term in a colony for minors. Cernei provided a copy of the sentencing judgment.

The same day, the candidate of the Liberal Party running for Chisinau mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca, held a news conference and introduced Elena Mocreac, who said that Anatolie Tofan raped her and her 13-year-old daughter Larisa Mocreac on May 14, 1988, and then stabbed the girl and buried her together with her father in the garden. The girl’s mother said that Tofan is a “councillor, captor, bandit, criminal, who violated a 14-year-old girl” and presented pictures from the funeral of her daughter, assuring that she personally knows communist councillor Anatolie Tofan. In the context, Chirtoaca urged PCRM councillors to quit their party, so that not to let the side down in front of Chisinau residents and voters. The PL candidate asked voters not to vote Dodon because he has a team of criminals.

The municipal councillor on behalf of PCRM, Anatolie Tofan, declined the PL accusations, describing them as lies and aberrations, and saying that he will sue the persons who spread these allegations. The PCRM candidate running for mayor-general of Chisinau, Igor Dodon, did not make any comments, but refused to participate in TV debates aired by Publika TV after having given green light to the invitation previously.

The municipal councillors on behalf of PL, Oleg Cernei, Vasile Grama and Vasile Hancu, have held a news conference and provided evidence regarding fraudulent privatisation operated when Igor Dodon was minister of economy. According to the provided documents, Dodon as minister of economy made some decisions which obstructed the state to collect about 95 million lei to the budget. Other documents provided during the news conference reveal that Victor Gurau, PCRM candidate to the Municipal Council, dispossessed the state budget of about one million lei through fiscal evasion, and two penal cases were filed on his name for appropriation, sale, substitution and concealment of seized or confiscated goods, being accused of the sale of a 3.7-hectare land field in Pan Halippa Street. (Source: PL)

The PCRM candidate running for mayor of Moldovan capital, Igor Dodon, has plans to submit a new appeal to the Prosecutor-General’s Office, in order to ask it to punish Dorin Chirtoaca for corruption-related cases, illegal issuance of permits and embezzlements. Dodon accuses his rival of illegalities related to designing and building of a waste burning plant; violations related to designing and building of a car wash; inaccurate location of booths in downtown; issuance of illegal building permits for mansards; authorisation to build a trade centre near Lech Kaczyński Street, by cutting trees and without the consent of residents; spending of about 800,000 euros for geo-tubes and about 80,000 euros for reagent for the Chisinau-based cleaning station.

Although they did not get yet any credentials of local elected and no definitive decision is available to validate the elections, PCRM councillors have convened again in a sitting at the City Hall under the lead of Igor Dodon, who convoked it in quality of councillor, as he heads the party list. Dodon promised journalists at the end of the sitting that shortly after the electoral campaign he will make an analysis of all violations of legislation committed by the City Hall, but already in quality of mayor-general of Chisinau municipality, and will inform the media about what had happened there the last years. (Source: Info-Prim Neo)

The union of Afghan war veterans is calling on members and supporters to vote PCRM candidate Igor Dodon at the local elections on June 19. Union representatives regard Dodon as an experienced manager, an economist and a practical man, “being the only candidate capable to rescue Chisinau from the deep social-economic crisis together with his united team.”

The Liberal Party (PL) has released a communication saying that the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Moldova confirmed that the excerpts from the Official Gazette of Romania submitted by Deputy Igor Dodon have been forged and provided wrong official data on founders and shareholders of SC “Carpat Belaz Service”, company which intermediated the purchase of 102 new trolleys by Chisinau City Hall. According to the response by the Prosecutor’s Office, the documents have been examined under Article 274 of Penal Code and a technical-scientific survey was ordered, so that the report on technical-scientific ascertainment No. 1313 of 16.06.2011 by the National Legal Expertise Centre of the Justice Ministry of Moldova “found out that the excerpts from the averse of four pages of the reprint from the Official Gazette of Romania, Part IV, issue 5334 of September 25, 2008, submitted to the Prosecutor-General’s Office by the member of the Parliament of Moldova, Igor Dodon, were done by a laser printer. The text could have been copied from internet directly.” The excerpts from the Official Gazette of Romania submitted to the Prosecutor-General’s Office were copied by a black-white laser printer and contain some differences compared with the chapter related to articles on the trade society “Carpat Belaz Service”, while the “full differences have been obtained after amalgamating (incorporating) excerpts from the right columns of Page 14 and Page 15 and continuing the excerpt with a text from the right column of Page 12, with the last one being the beginning of the Official Gazette of Romania, Part IV, issue 5334 of September 25, 2008, which refers to the trade society «Carpat Belaz Service» Ltd. The excerpts taken from Pages 14 and 15 refer to the trade society «Comatchim M.D.F. 2006» JSC. The information pooling was not marked by intervals or paragraphs, giving the impression of an integral text.” The Prosecutor-General’s Office continues investigations, so that to further release the final findings and make a decision. (Source: PL)