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The results of the vote recount in the April 5, 2009 elections operated at all polling stations on Wednesday will be reported on Friday, the secretary of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), Iurie Ciocan, has stated to Radio Free Europe. He said that the vote recount process is almost over with the recount of ballots cast abroad only being left for Thursday. According to Ciocan, this task rests with the Chisinau Electoral Constituency Council. “They will recount these ballots tomorrow (i.e. Thursday), given the fact that they recounted all the votes in the Chisinau municipality on Wednesday,” Ciocan noted. “In all likelihood, the final results will be reported on Friday, as the reports from the territory will be got on Thursday, and the data will be totalised further,” the CEC secretary added. Only 11 OSCE observers monitored the vote recount at nearly 2,000 polling stations in Moldova. (Source: europalibera.org / jurnal.md)

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) reconfirms that all electoral contestants who applied for access to the electoral lists have got it. As well, the CEC reported that those contestants have made copies of about 90 percent of the electoral lists nationwide. It noted that the April 14, 2009 Decision by the Chisinau Court of Appeal just limits the possibility to make copies of the electoral lists. It does not restrict the free access of electoral contestants to the electoral documentation. Given the fact that the contestants have already made copies of almost all electoral lists, any statements signalling a restricted access to electoral lists are groundless and aim to mislead the voters. (Source: CEC communication)

The vote recount in the Moldovan elections confirms the previous results, which awarded victory to the Party of Communists, CEC secretary Iurie Ciocan said on Thursday. “No frauds were discovered after the vote recount to advantage any candidates. In certain areas, as we have reported from the scene, some minor errors relating to several ballots were found out. The final conclusions will be reported after the Commission collects all information from the polling stations,” Ciocan added. (Source: Mediafax)

All the young people arrested and ill-treated by the police in the past days will be released! This is an order by outgoing President Vladimir Voronin given while addressing people on the public television channel Moldova-1. Voronin accused the PL, PLDM and AMN of the violent actions on April 7 and Romania of “openly supporting” the liberal opposition and “participating in the street protests in other country.” Voronin said that the April 7 protests held by young people “traumatised and polarised the society,” and the “liberal parties” are to blame for this situation because “they took back Moldova to the 1990s” and want “to redirect the country from the European integration route.” The chief of state stressed that Chisinau governing “will not revenge against anybody” and it “differs from the dictatorship.” In this regard, Voronin continued, all the young people arrested and ill-treated by the police in the past days will be released, while the “underworld representatives and recidivists who profited from the complicated political situation will be kept in prisons.” (Source: Unimedia)

The Prosecutor-General’s Office has opened proceedings to revoke the repressions under custody applied on some participants in the massive disturbances on April 7. According to the press service of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, following a statement by Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin, the Prosecutor-General’s Office has started revoking the repressive measures under the shape of arrest applied to some people. It noted that majority of people held after the street protests could fall under the incidence of these proceedings. As well, prosecutors will contest decisions by law courts with the purpose to cease the administrative proceedings against these people. (Source: Moldpres)

“The initiative of the outgoing president Vladimir Voronin to amnesty all participants to the violent actions on April 7, 2009 represents a strong positive message for restoring the political dialogue and peaceful relations, and its further materialization in concrete actions is needed” stated Jean-Louis Laurens, Director General for Democracy and Political Affairs of the Council of Europe during its monitoring visit in Moldova. The statement was made during a meeting with Zinaida Grecianii, Moldovan prime-minister. (Source: Omega)

The number of people being persecuted by Moldovan police on suspicion of involvement in the April 6–7 mass riots has by now exceeded a thousand, according to estimates of Chisinau City Hall. In a press conference held on April 16, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca accused the Interior Ministry of providing distorted, incomplete and biased information about the arrests and detentions made during the last few days. “According to information by the Interior Minsitry (IM) 172 individuals were arrested and subjected to various sanctions. On the other hand, on the basis of appeals coming from missing persons’ relatives and of the evidences presented by people released from custody, the Chisinau City Hall has prepared a database about 328 people that were subjected to arrests and various punishments”, said Dorin Chirtoaca. He explained that the police “do not rush to write out detention protocols on all their victims. Accordingly, such people are not included into the IM statistics, though they were actually arrested and beaten up in custody”. In the mayor’s view, the arrested people were moved to the police stations ans prisons outside Chisinau in order to cover up maltreatment of detainees. (Sursa: Infotag)

The amnesty promised by the outgoing President Voronin cannot be enforced, as Voronin’s prerogative is to reprieve people while the amnesty is the object of a law approved by the Parliament. The chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM), Vlad Filat, made this statement at a news conference on Thursday. He said that this way Vladimir Voronin is meddling in the judicial act and proves his full control on law enforcement bodies. Elsewhere, Filat noted that he has and will keep demanding the immediate release of all the people arrested by the police abusively, thrown to police commissariats, tried, tortured, ill-treated, humiliated and killed. “Law courts shall exculpate these youths definitively and investigate and sentence the true organisers of the April 6–7 disturbances and violence,” Filat stressed. The PLDM seeks the resignation of the Public Company Teleradio Moldova, so that to make this broadcaster serve the community, not the PCRM. (Source: jurnal.md)

The United Nations Children’s Fund in Moldova says that according to available reports, there are concerns that some arrested children have been ill-treated. The UNICEF representative to Moldova, Alexandra Yuster, made this statement during meetings with Deputy Interior Minister Valentin Zubic and Deputy Minister of Justice Nicolae Esanu. The UNICEF official said that the Fund has monitored the situation of teenagers and asked the Interior Ministry to ensure respect for all guaranteed rights of the children who have been arrested or investigated after the protests. (Source: jurnal.md)

The Prosecutor-General’s Office has set a special commission to investigate the police-committed torture against the people held after the April 7 protests, Vitalie Diaconu, head of the Prosecutor-General’s apparatus, told Thursday a seminar organised by civil society which focussed on the last week’s protests. Diaconu said that the commission has got 20 appeals from people who have been allegedly ill-treated by policemen and the prosecutor’s office has seized upon another ten cases of this kind on the basis of press reports. According to accounts of the prosecutor’s office, 195 persons were under criminal custody and another 41 under administrative arrest in connection with the last week’s riots, as for April 15. The Prosecutor-General’s Office asked forensic doctors to examine the physical condition of the arrested people. (Source: stireazilei.md)

The “Actiunea Europeana” (European Action) Social-Political Movement (MAE) picketed the Interior Ministry on Thursday, April 16, shouting “Stop the Terror!” “We demand the urgent release of protesters and their investigation at large with the necessary legal assistance, we urge security bodies to stop pursuing the young people who participated in the April 6 and 7 protests and elucidate all deaths objectively,” MAE chairman Anatol Petrencu stated. With regard to the statements made by Vladimir Voronin on the TV station Moldova-1 concerning the amnesty and end of all pursuits against participants in the April 6 and 7 events, Ion Neagu, first deputy chairman of the MAE, said that “this declaration was made for the eye service.” “Who will pardon those killed, hurt and missing?” Neagu wondered. Young MAE members shouted “Stop the Terror”, “Release our Fellows”, “Stop the Violence”. (Source: Info-Prim)

The Prosecutor’s Office has contested the decision of the Grigoriopol district court (i.e. based in Chisinau) concerning the expulsion of Aleksejs Gregorjevs, director of the U.S. National Democracy Institute in Chisinau, as groundless. To recall that the Grigoriopol law court decided on April 15 to expel Latvian citizen Aleksejs Gregorjevs for violating the staying term in Moldova. The Court of Appeal gave green light to the prosecutor’s office appeal, outlawed the April 15 decision and ceased the related administrative proceedings. (Source: communication by Prosecutor-General’s Office)

European Parliament (EP) is preparing a resolution on Moldova and a mission to investigate the latest events from Chisinau. These initiatives have been supported by liberals and democrats and there is high chance to be included on the Assembly’s agenda. The socialists declared that will not oppose, but decided to send their own delegation to investigate the latest events from Chisinau. The debates from Wednesday, April 15, in the EP Foreign Affairs Committee have outlined the desire to make political recommendations on the situation from Chisinau, and the insistence of liberal (ALDE) and democrat (PPE-DE) political groups on debating about the latest events in Moldova and the abuses against the human rights at the EP plenary session with participation of the representatives of European Commission and European Council, and to organize a EP mission to Moldova to investigate the events from Chisinau. The ALDE leader, Graham Watson declared, according to an ALDE statement that “The European Union must signal its engagement with Moldova’s future stability and democratic development through its Eastern Partnership. The government in Chisinau must act swiftly to repair the damage to the credibility of the Moldovan political system caused by reports of vote rigging and human rights violations”. Invited to the extraordinary meeting of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee, the Romanian foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu described as “utterly unfounded” and “absurd” the accusations made by the ongoing President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, who has said that Romania was behind the rioting that followed the announcement of the election results ten days ago. He also explained the accusations are not supported by evidence so far, and Bucharest did not receive any explanation for its alleged interference. (Sursa: hotnews.ro)