alegeri.md

“We’ll say the elections have been partially unfair,” said the spokeswoman of the League for Defense of Human Rights in Moldova, Rima Placinta-Condratchi, at a news conference in the morning of July 30. LADOM is part of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections — Coalition 2009 — and deployed over 2,000 observers nationwide to monitor the July 29 early parliamentary elections. As a rule, the international observers say their stand on the fairness of polls after the local observers, but after the April 5 elections, the CIS observers ignored this un-written custom. Rima Placinta-Condratchi presented the results of LADOM’s quick counting of votes. Thus, PCRM got 43% of votes, PLDM — 17%, PL — 14%, PDM — almost 14%, AMN — 7%, PPCD — 2%, PSD — 2%, the Greens — 0.4%. This calculus was made on the basis of protocols from 364 polling stations, the margin of error being 1.5%. (Info-Prim Neo)

Sources in the mayor’s office of Sangera, which forms part of the municipality of Chisinau, said that the July 29 fight, in which the son of the Sangera AMN leader was injured, broke out between supporters of the Party of Communists and the Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) Alliance. Five persons sustained injuries. The 31-year-old Sergiu Bumbu was taken to the Emergency Hospital with a gunshot wound in his leg. His father aged 54 suffered mental shock and fractures of the nasal bones as another 53-year-old participant in the fight. Another two men, aged 26 and 36, suffered mental shock. The Secretary of Central Electoral Commission, Iurie Ciocan, said that the incident has no connection with the electoral process as it occurred in the village not at the polling station. But Stefan Bumbu and his son said they were attacked when they were returning from the polling station, near the police station located at 150–200 meters from the polling station. The case is investigated by the police of Chisinau’s Botanica district of. The person that fired the gun was arrested. Legal action will be taken over this case, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Interior Ala Meleca said yesterday evening. (Info-Prim Neo)

The final results of the July 29 parliamentary elections will be made public on Friday, July 31. The data from the polling stations set up abroad and from those located in the rayons of Dubasari and Straseni has not been processed yet. The polling stations from abroad are to submit the election results to the CEC within 48 hours since the polling stations closed. Under the Election Code, the CEC is obliged to announce the final election results within 96 hours after the polling stations are closed. The Central Electoral Commission will send the results to the Constitutional Court, which is to declare the elections valid or invalid during 10 days. (Info-Prim Neo)

The mission of observers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) considers that the early legislative elections in Moldova were conduced in full compliance with the electoral legislation and in conditions of political pluralism. The mission says that the July 29 elections were democratic as the people could freely exercise their right to vote. The mission’s head Serghei Lebedev told a news conference on Thursday that 66 CIS observers have been in Moldova since July 14. They visited practically all the polling stations and discussed with the members of electoral bureaus and the Central Electoral Commission and with representatives of the election runners. The observers ascertained that the elections were held in a democratic manner, Lebedev said, adding that the lowering of the election threshold and the voter turnout was welcome. According to him, the representatives of political parties that ran in elections attentively monitored the election process and the vote rigging “was practically impossible”. Lebedev considers yet that the last stage of the election campaign was aggressive as some of the party leaders made hostile statements in the press. He said that though a lot of work was done after April 5 to improve the voter rolls so as to exclude the dead persons and those registered in the dwellings of other people, the lists were inaccurate. The CIS observation mission was composed of 66 observers from eight countries, including Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. (Info-Prim Neo)

The early parliamentary elections have not been fair. The conclusion is drawn by Moldovan observers, which have monitored the race for the July 29 elections. Secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections — Coalition 2009 -- Nicolae Panfil told at news conference on July 30 that, “taking into account the situation of voters from Transnistria, of the ones from abroad and the situation of students, the elections were not totally free.” Petru Macovei, the executive director of the Independent Press Association, which is part of Coalition 2009, has stated: “There are two very severe aspects in this race, which have largely determined the attitude of Coalition 2009, when these final conclusions have been made. The question is about massively using of administrative resources, more than during the previous race, and about manipulating the public opinion through media.” Another argumentation brought about by Coalition 2009 in favor of its statements is the fact that the authorities did not insure am electoral climate free from violence, as tens of severe cases of intimidating electoral competitors were noticed. According to a press release by Coalition 2009, “the equal chances principle for the electoral participants has not been assured, as some contestants were discriminated.” (Info-Prim Neo)

“When negotiating the formation of a coalition, we will consider the principles, not the persons,” Vlad Filat, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) said, referring to a possible dialogue with the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM). At a news conference on Thursday, Vlad Filat voiced hope that the parties that will enter the Parliament will come to an agreement so as to avoid new parliamentary elections next year. “I hope that the PCRM will show maturity at least this time, will act in the national interests, admit defeat and move into opposition, while the parties that were victorious in these elections will take over the government, for Moldova’s future,” Vlad Filat said. He assured that talks with parties that passed the election threshold of 5% will be transparent and the people will find out the results of these talks very soon. “I truly hope that Marian Lupu is a leader in the PDM and that his statements are real.” Vlad Filat made a call to the voters, saying: “The elections have passed and we now have to live in this country. It’s time to stop hatred as we all are citizens of this country, regardless of the political orientation, religion, age and ethnicity.” (Info-Prim Neo)

The early parliamentary elections in Moldova met many standards, but highlighted the necessity of implementing democratic reforms in order to restore the people’s trust in the political class, considers the International Election Observation Mission, a joint initiative of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE (OSCE/ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. The foreign observers said that the elections were conducted in a generally good manner and created conditions for competition. Petros Efthzioa, Boris Filec, Klos Bergman, Mevlut Cavuso and Marian-Jean Marinecu told a news conference on July 30 that the Election Day was well-planned and calm, while the identified irregularities concerned mainly the voter rolls. However, some of the electoral bureaus met with difficulties in filling in the reports on tabulation of election results, while about half of the bureaus did not post these reports to be examined by the public. The electronic data processing worked well and allowed publishing the results very quickly, the foreign observers said. At the same time, they expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Moldova did not introduce the Electronic Register, as it pledged, because it would have enabled to check the voter rolls. More irregularities were discovered during the election campaign, which was marked by tensions and mutual accusations between the ruling party and the opposition, especially concerning the April 7 events. Also, the administrative resources were widely used. The international observers spoke about cases of intimidation of the voters and candidates, including the interruption of the opposition parties’ meetings by provokers. The behavior of the mass media was inappropriate. The observers said that three TV channels with national coverage, including the public channel Moldova 1, failed to impartially cover the events involving the election runners, being biased towards the PCRM. Moldova is under monitoring, but it still lags behind in many areas like the press and legal system, the observers stressed. (Info-Prim Neo)

The July 29 parliamentary elections can be considered a victory over Communism. The Republic of Moldova will return to democracy, the vice president of the Liberal Party (PL) and Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said at a news conference on Thursday. “Though the Communists rigged the elections, using the administrative resources, the church, the police and the public mass media and not obeying the rules, the democratic opposition has won,” Chirtoaca said, adding: “We would have polled more votes if no irregularities had been committed.” Together with the other opposition parties, the PL aims to ensure the compliance of the principles of a state of law and to promote a competitive market economy, free press and independent justice. The PL pleads for better relations with the neighboring states, especially the European Union, a thorough investigation of the April 7 events and for raising the population’s incomes at least up to the minimum subsistence level. He stressed that the PL will not form a coalition with the PCRM, but recommends the Communists to ponder over and yield the power up to the Democratic forces willingly. Chirtoaca also said Voronin should admit defeat and tender his resignation so as not to prevent Moldova from making progress. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) is ready to hold a principled dialogue with all the political forces represented in the newly elected Parliament, the party’s Chairman Vladimir Voronin said in a speech to the voters. Vladimir Voronin said that as more than a half of the voters chose other political organizations, the PCRM can do nothing but continue the policy aimed at strengthening the entire Moldovan society, maintaining social stability and increasing trust in the irreversibility of the Moldovan statehood and its prospects. “In the current elections, the PCRM won a clear victory. Over 700,000 persons voted for the PCRM. The early elections showed once again that in the last decade the PCRM has not had a worthy opponent that would enjoy the same support and would have the same capacity to maintain and increase the political power,” Vladimir Voronin said. (Info-Prim Neo)