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About 700–800 protesters gathered in the Chisinau downtown with flowers on Friday. They said “the flowers mean their peaceful action they hold to protest against the results of the April 5 elections and actions taken by the authorities against participants in the peaceful protests on April 7 and 8.” The priest of the commune of Sireti, Ion Vrinceanu, called upon people from square to be wise and refrain from protests. Some lecturers from the Moldova State University and Construction College said that persons in civil clothes persuade students from classrooms not to attend the protests. Young people said that “the presence of UN representatives would be the only solution to protect the interests of protesters.” They shouted the slogans “Freedom to the Media!”, “Release of the Arrested!”, “Bucharest with Us, Communists to Garbage!”, “Do Not Hold People on Street!” Protesters said that because of the lack of press freedom in Moldova people did not gather in the Great National Assembly Square on Friday to protest in front of the Government building.

At the same time, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM), Vladimir Filat, told journalists on Thursday that he has decided to cancel the PLDM plans to hold protests in the Chisinau downtown. The Chisinau City Hall has earlier authorised the PLDM to hold protests in the Great National Assembly Square during April 6–20, 2009. The “Actiunea Europeana” (European Action) Movement has also postponed the scheduled protests in front of Teleradio-Moldova Company. On Friday, the police continued arresting and holding people on street and at home, including journalists. Three reporters from the Romanian TV station Antena 3 were expelled early on Friday. A Romanian journalist from TVR was arrested for six hours. A cameraman from JurnalTV.md was visited at home and searched on Thursday evening. The editor-in-chief of newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau was held on street and taken to police station “for an identity checking”. (Source: Infotag / Moldpres / jurnal.md)

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has accepted to examine an application by Moldova’s Government on the dual citizenship case. The Government has contested in the mid-February in the Grand Chamber the ECHR decision on double citizenship, which has awarded victory to the first deputy chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM), Alexandru Tanase. He applied to the ECHR on summer 2008 saying that the law restricting holders of dual citizenship from running high-ranking offices obstructs him to become member of the Moldovan Parliament. According to Tanase, this restriction violates his right to be elected and the right of people to elect. The ECHR has reacted immediately and awarded victory to Tanase in a couple of months. The Government notified the Grand Chamber that the law was then just a draft while the ECHR considered it like a law. Therefore, the Government claims that the ECHR has exceeded its competences in this case, as it considered it in the light of the European Convention on Citizenship, while it is in charge with considering cases just in the light of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Government noted that Alexandru Tanase applied to the ECHR before using all internal legal ways. (Source: Infotag)

Baroness Emma Nicholson has reiterated for news agencies Basa-press and Moldpres that she finds “too warm” the final report on the April 5 parliamentary elections released by the OSCE Mission to which she was part, as the electoral right of many Moldovan citizens was not respected. She regretted that the final report did not cover initiatives that she and some European parliamentarians have raised, especially “regarding the impossibility of Moldovan citizens from the left bank of the Dniester to participate in the voting.” “The electoral process in Moldova requires some adjustments and has some faults so far. But I must acknowledge that what we have monitored, notably the introduction of ballot papers in boxes and their further drawing out was almost perfect,” the baroness stressed. Asked to comment her statements to BBC regarding the discrepancy between accounts on the night of elections and those released early on April 6, the baroness said that there were some own estimates at 01:00 a.m., which were surprisingly unrealistic. (Source: Moldpres)

Opposition parties claim that the authorities obstruct the access to voter rolls which they should check within four days, starting Thursday, April 9. The three parties — PL, PLDM and AMN — ask the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to extend this term with one week. “The Moldovan leadership and Voronin himself obstruct the access of AMN, PL and PLDM representatives to voter rolls, using all mechanisms they manipulate. So far, we did not have access to any rolls in any rayon,” AMN leader Serafim Urecheanu told a news conference on Friday, April 10. Representatives of the three parties failed on Thursday to contact heads of electoral constituencies and district judges, whose consent is needed to provide access to the rolls. The AMN has applied to the CEC to extend with one week the term for checking the rolls. It will use all legal ways to self-protect, inclusively peaceful meetings, should the authorities obstruct the access to voter rolls. In his turn, CEC secretary Iurie Ciocan said that the electoral legislation does not stipulate an exact term for the checking of electoral lists. The Electoral Code does not stipulate such a procedure. “The CEC has extended the work of heads of electoral constituency councils with four days in order to establish the rayons in which the parties want to check the lists. The exact number of rayons will be established by Sunday. We will prolong the activity of commission heads from these rayons, if needed be,” Ciocan stated. He also noted that the CEC has sent letters to all constituency commissions and allowed them to present the lists to representatives of the three parties. AMN, PL and PLDM insist that the checking of electoral lists and ballot recounting would reveal frauds that advantaged the ruling party at the April 5 elections. Representatives of opposition parties claim that thousands of dead people were included in voters’ rolls and somebody else voted instead of them. (Source: Info-Prim)

PCRM chairman Vladimir Voronin has asked the Constitutional Court of Moldova to make a univocal decision concerning the necessity of an integral recount of ballots in the the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections. “In order to ensure fundamental conditions for a stable activity of the newly-elected legislative body of the country, me, as Chairman of the party that enjoyed a persuading victory in a fair and democratic competition, I ask the Constitutional Court to wholly recount the ballots in the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections,” reads an appeal. “I am very confident that the integral recount in accordance with effective legislation and procedures will become an important argument for political stability, peace and mutual trust in the Republic of Moldova,” reads the appeal by PCRM chairman Vladimir Voronin to the Constitutional Court of Moldova. (Source: Omega)

U.S. Ambassador Asif J. Chaudhry has welcomed the call by the leader of the Party of Communists, Vladimir Voronin, to the Constitutional Court concerning the vote recount in the parliamentary elections, expressing optimism that after the checking the opposition would finally recognise the election results and competent bodies would validate the parliamentary elections. While meeting Vladimir Voronin, the U.S. diplomat stressed the importance of finding an optimal way of cooperation between authorities and opposition parties to ensure the social-political stability. The U.S. ambassador noted that the reaction of the Moldovan authorities towards the April 7 developments was adequate. The U.S. ambassador to Moldova was confident that the Moldovan authorities will further act the same way to stabilise the situation, by ensuring full respect for people’s freedom of expression. (Source: Infotag)

There are premises for setting up a police and dictatorial regime in Moldova, according to the declaration by an expert group concerning the worsening of social-political situation in our country. It says that spontaneous and peaceful demonstrations in Chisinau downtown on April 7 were used to provoke violent and criminal actions which destroyed the Parliament and Presidency buildings. The police actions could not prevent acts of violence and vandalism. The signatories condemn “categorically” the actions of violence and vandalism and describe as groundless the “transfer of responsibility and image from the violent group to the larger and more representative team of peaceful protesters or political leaders.” The post-electoral statements by the chief of state have fuelled the suspicions and catalysed the street protests by people, expert noted, signalling a “massive brain laundering campaign.” They demand refraining from any actions and statements capable to deteriorate the situation; building of a political dialogue framework to settle the conflict; preventing of new violence; publishing of the lists of arrested people and ensuring the access of lawyers and human rights organisations to those people; avoiding political persecutions; investigating fairly with the international participation the reasons of the acts of vandalism; ensuring people’s freedom of circulation; ensuring the freedom of opinion and expression, the inviolability of individual freedom and security of citizens; eliminating any suspicions related to correctness of the parliamentary election results. Experts also call upon all media institutions, particularly on the Tele-Radio Moldova Company to cover fairly and unbiased the social-political developments after the April 5 elections, with the equal and non-discriminatory participation of the parties concerned. (Source: azi.md, alegeliber.md)

Media NGOs (Independent Press Association, Independent Journalism Centre, Electronic Press Association, Journalistic Investigation Centre, Moldovan Journalists Union, Centre of Young Journalist in Moldova) raise concern with the “worsening situation of the press, violated right to access to information and assaults on journalists.” According to a joint statement, the NGOs say that “on Wednesday evening, April 8, some reporters from the investigative weekly Ziarul de Garda were treated rudely by police representatives who refused to introduce themselves.” “The same day, Oleg Brega, cameraman from the online TV station Jurnal TV, was beaten by two individuals in civil clothes, sequestering two cameras from the young man who was doing his job. The editorial staff of Ziarul de Garda and the administration of Jurnal TV hold evidence capable to help identifying the doers and they are ready to provide it to law enforcement bodies,” reads the statement. The NGOs note that “on April 9, the known portal Facebook.com and the social network Odnoklassniki.ru were unavailable to surfers from Moldova.” As well, they stress that “on April 8, administrators of the news website unimedia.md found that the Unimedia server was broken several times.” “At least two broadcasters stopped airing the TV stations Realitatea TV and TVR 1 in Moldova. The TV stations disappeared from the list of TV channels on Tuesday evening at around 21:00.” The NGOs urged the Moldovan authorities “to ensure the freedom of the media in the virtue of commitments as member of the Council of Europe and to facilitate the access of people to information.” (Source: Infotag)

The Civil Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Coalition-2009” applied to the Central Electoral Commission on April 10 (application registered with the CEC under number CEC 7/1325), seeking access to electoral lists, including supplementary, and the possibility to make copies at polling stations covered by the Chisinau Electoral Constituency. The Coalition-2009 believes that an independent checking of electoral lists would give light to assumptions relating to multiple voting and accuracy of voter rolls for the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections. The Coalition deployed more than 2,100 national observers to the parliamentary elections on April 5, 2009. It will delegate national observers accredited at the April 5 elections to make copies of electoral lists. (Source: communication by Coalition-2009)