Evolutions related to the counting the ballot papers garnered by the main two candidates at the elections for the mayor of the capital kept everybody guessing all the day on June 6, 2011:
In the morning, representatives of the Chisinau District Electoral Council said that the counting of 99 percent of the ballot papers awarded PCRM candidate Igor Dodon as winner of the elections for Chisinau Mayor-General, as he gathered 52 percent of the votes, followed by the PL candidate and incumbent mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca, with only 43 percent of the valid votes.
Further, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that the real figures are not the same, assuring that the reported results did not include the processed ballot papers from suburbs of the capital. CEC allowed members of the Chisinau District Electoral Council to take a 7-hour break in order to have a rest and avoid wrong reports on election results.
The parallel counting of ballots based on reports by observers representing the Promo-LEX Association revealed that Igor Dodon won 48.53 percent of the valid votes and Dorin Chirtoaca gained 46.76 percent. The Promo-LEX accounts were based on reports from 190 polling stations.
According to the preliminary election results, the CEC reports on the Chisinau City Hall revealed the following at 9.00 a.m.: 43.33 percent of reports were recorded and Igor Dodon (PCRM) won 51.59 percent of the votes and Dorin Chirtoaca (PL) gained 43.96 percent. CEC invited media outlets and electoral candidates to refrain from conclusions, as the vote counting and summation process was longer than reported.
Following the processing of 55 percent of reports in Chisinau municipality, Igor Dodon won 51.62 percent of the valid ballots and Dorin Chirtoaca 44.07 percent.
After the processing of 66.67 percent of reports in Chisinau municipality, Igor Dodon won 52.80 percent of the votes and Dorin Chirtoaca 42.90 percent.
After the processing of 90.67 percent of reports (09:45 p.m.), Igor Dodon won 50.16 percent of the votes and Dorin Chirtoaca 44.93 percent.
According to the results released by CEC after the processing of all reports, Igor Dodon garnered 48.07 percent of the votes (166,232 ballots) and Dorin Chirtoaca won 46.51 percent (160,827 ballots). These are the final results; that means that the Chisinau municipality will hold a runoff vote to elect a mayor.
The two candidates commented the situation differently the same day:
Igor Dodon was surprised that CEC did not report the final election results for a long while, leaving room for suspicions regarding the fair counting and recording of electoral figures. He indicated among factors that fuelled suspicions the wrong findings of the exit poll; fraud attempts and voting-related frauds; parallel counting performed by some biased NGOs; hysterical hustle and bustle in the liberal camp; lack of clear and strong signs from CEC staff; late reporting of final results.
PL candidate Dorin Chirtoaca called for patience, assuring that the data provided by the PL observers indicated a short distance between the first two contestants and confirmed the necessity of organising a runoff vote in the capital, as none of contestants won more than half of the votes.
The results of the June 5 elections nominated Vasile Panciuc, PCRM candidate running for Balti mayor, as winner of the elections, since he garnered 68.7 percent of the votes, followed by PLDM candidate, Vladimir Tonciuc with 15.41 percent, PL candidate Vadim Vacarciuc with 7.38 percent, and PDM candidate Anatolie Harcenco with 5.96 percent. PCRM won 63.49 percent of the votes for Balti Municipal Council, followed by PLDM with 12.70 percent, PL with 6.07 percent, PDM with 5.33 percent, and PSD with 1.21 percent.
Comrat mayor re-elected
Following the processing of all reports, the Comrat Disctrict Electoral Council nominated the independent candidate and incumbent mayor, Nicolai Dudoglo, as winner in Comrat city, after he has garnered 57.5 percent of the votes. Following Dudoglo are independent candidate Constantin Sibov, who won 20.7 percent of the votes, PLDM candidate Petru Vlah with 8.2 percent, Vasile Croitor and Petru Mavrodi (PDM) with 6.4 percent, and Leonid Dobrov (Ecologist Party “Alianta Verde”) with less than 1 percent.