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Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has approved on Tuesday, April 21, the decision on totalizing the results of the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections after the vote recount on April 15. Three out of nine CEC members has signed a separate opinion that was appended to the informative note. In their separate opinion, the three members raise doubts about the correctness of vote recounting and request the Constitutional Court to pay a special attention to verification of the electoral bureaus protocols from April 5 and respectively, April 15. These CEC members affirm that have verified the protocols in 6 rayons and discovered that many signatures of the electoral bureaus’ members on the April 5 protocols do not correspond with signatures on the April 15 protocols.

However, according to CEC, no significant changes in the preliminary results of the April 5, parliamentary elections were found. Four political parties will enter the Parliament: the Party of Communists — with 49.48% of votes, Liberal Party — 13.13% (compared with the previous result of 13.14%), “Moldova Noastra” Alliance — 9.77%. According to the CEC secretary, Iurie Ciocan, during the vote recount valid votes were found among the invalid ballots. Thus, PCRM has received 412 votes more, PL — 57, PLDM — 181 and AMN — 45. The new data does not change the distribution of parliamentary seats; PCRM — has 60 seats, both PL and PLDM -15 seats each and AMN — 11 seats. The CEC decision and the protocols were submitted today to the Constitutional Court, which should decide on the validation of election results. PL, AMN and PLDM announced that will contest the election results in the Constitutional Court as they declare that found many election breaches after verifying the electoral lists. Under the Election Code, the Constituional Court shall either confirm or not, through a decision, the legality of the elections within 10 days of the date of receiving documents from the Central Electoral Commission, but not before the final settlement by the law courts of the eventual contestations deposited in accordance with the procedures established by the legislation. Simultaneously, the Constitutional Court shall validate the mandates of the elected parliament members and confirm the lists of alternate candidates.

The Election Observation Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) released on April 21 its interim report on the Moldovan parliamentary elections. The Mission assed the post-electoral events in Moldova, saying that “it also attempted to verify a limited number of cases of alleged fraudulent voting based on deficiencies of the voter lists.” “While most cases appeared credible, the documentation provided by the opposition to substantiate these claims was limited in scale, and a comprehensive analysis is necessary for a conclusive assessment.” As well, the document says that the Mission “has received reports about some 20 election day complaints, mainly related to irregularities in the voting procedures and campaigning outside polling stations.” The OSCE/ODIHR will continue to follow the postelection developments, and will issue a comprehensive final report, including a set of recommendations, approximately two months after the completion of the election process. (Source: Omega)

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) assures that the press reports signalling the presence of holders of the same identity cards on voter rolls for the recent parliamentary elections and the coincidence of ID numbers of identity cards do not correspond to the reality. CEC chairman Eugen Stirbu said that the Commission has reacted to these reports and asked the Ministry of Information Development to provide data on the published information. Following a checking, it was proved that the reports by some political parties which allege the election fraud do not correspond to the reality. According to Stirbu, the rise in the number of voters included in the supplementary lists is explained by the fact that 286,297 people have turned 18 before the elections. (Source: Omega)

Deputy Chairman of the Liberal Party (PL), Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca is sure “the April 5 elections were rigged”, and “the communists could not win more than 30–35%, at most 40% of votes, but after the actions the communists have taken, they have incorrectly increased their votes”. In his interview with Ziare.ro, he said that now the opposition are proving these breaches and hopes “to put an end to unfair electoral practices in the Republic of Moldova”. As regards the April 6–7 events in Chisinau, Chirtoaca stated that was “a spontaneous manifestation of protests by the indignant youth”. In his opinion, at the moment “a definite position of the European Union and the United States condemning what the Communists unleashed in Chisinau is required, after which they must proceed to a long-term democratization of the Republic of Moldova”. (Source: ziare.ro / Infotag)

A state commission appointed under a presidential decree will elucidate the reasons, conditions and consequences of the events which took place in Chisinau on April 7 and 8, according to a presidential communication. The commission will also “work out measures to prevent anti-constitutional actions and eliminate their causes,” reads the communication. Vladimir Voronin appointed Vladimir Turcan, parliamentarian representing the Party of Communists (PCRM), to head the new commission. The commission will include ministers, a PCRM lawmaker, journalists from media institutions which support the PCRM etc. (Source: Moldpres)

The Department of Penitentiary Institutions (DIP) reports that 98 people suspected of involvement in the massive disturbances during the April 7 protests have been released from preventive arrest. According to DIP, 106 people overall have been detained in the Chisinau-based Prison # 13, including four minors. DIP assures that while being detained in the prison the inmates did not face any ill-treatment or other constraints or inhuman treatment. They have been examined by doctors from Prison # 13 who certified their condition, body harm and provided the necessary healthcare when needed. Eight people suspected of the same crimes are being kept in Prison # 13. According to the Prosecutor-General’s Office, just organisers of the April 7 riots and persons with criminal records are being kept in custody so far. (Source: Info-Prim)

So far, minimum three persons disappeared during the April 7 riots in Chisinau, when the Presidency and Parliament headquarters were damaged and plundered out, Alexandra Motpan, Head of the Chisinau municipal Department of Local Public Administration, stated at a weekly working meeting of the Chisinau City Hall on Monday. She said the missing three are Sergiu Donici (aged 19), Alexandru Galinschi (27), and Mihai Tudorache (23), whose families know nothing about them until now. Motpan said that according to data base produced by Chisinau City Hall, based on information provided by parents of detained or maltreated youths, since April 7 riots to date, the Chisinau police have detained or beaten up in the streets 318 people. (Source: Infotag)

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Coalition 2009” which deployed about 2,000 observers to monitor the April 5 elections has assessed a number of electoral breaches, lots of irregularities, errors in electoral reports issued by electoral bureaus of polling stations, shortcomings related to voter lists, after considering reports by independent observers. The gravest violations recorded by the “Coalition 2009” are: the corrupting of voters, the campaigning on the Election Day, the influencing of voters, the presence of unauthorized persons inside and near polling stations, the indirect voting (voting instead of somebody else), the voting on the basis of prohibited identity documents, the non-applying of the stamp “Elections 05.04.2009” on the identity card by polling stations, incidents related to the “voted” stamp, problems related to the vote count (approximately 10.5 percent out of 208 polling stations miscounted the ballot papers), the intimidation of voters, groundless interdictions on voters to cast their ballots, the intimidation of observers, faulty voter rolls. As well, there were some irregularities inclusively the inappropriate endowment of polling stations, the refusal to apply the “Elections 05.04.2009” stamp on identity cards, problems relating to the voting at the place of staying, polling stations arranged and administrated inappropriately, several people in the secret polling booth at once, attempts by some voters to draw ballot papers from polling stations, etc. (Source: communication by “Coalition 2009”)

An extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs on Moldova will be held on Wednesday, April 22, at Strasbourg. The Moldovan Ambassador to the Council of Europe Eugenia Chistruga and opposition figures — “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Chairman Serafim Urechean, Liberal Democratic Party Chairman Vlad Filat and Deputy Chairman of the Liberal Party, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca will take part in the meeting. During the meeting, the European parliamentarians are going to debate the situation in Moldova after the April 5 parliamentary elections. It is expected the European Parliament to release a statement on Moldova on April 23. (Source: Infotag)

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Coalition-2009” which deployed about 2,000 observers to monitor the April 5 elections has assessed a number of electoral breaches, lots of irregularities, errors in electoral reports issued by electoral bureaus of polling stations, shortcomings related to voter lists, after considering reports by independent observers. The gravest violations recorded by the Coalition-2009 are: the corrupting of voters, the campaigning on the Election Day, the influencing of voters, the presence of unauthorised persons inside and near polling stations, the indirect voting (voting instead of somebody else), the voting on the basis of prohibited identity documents, the non-applying of the stamp “Elections 05.04.2009” on the identity card by polling stations, incidents related to the “voted” stamp, problems related to the vote count (approximately 10.5 percent out of 208 polling stations miscounted the ballot papers), the intimidation of voters, groundless interdictions on voters to cast their ballots, the intimidation of observers, faulty voter rolls. As well, there were some irregularities inclusively the inappropriate endowment of polling stations, the refusal to apply the “Elections 05.04.2009” stamp on identity cards, problems relating to the voting at the place of staying, polling stations arranged and administrated inappropriately, several people in the secret polling booth at once, attempts by some voters to draw ballot papers from polling stations, etc. (Source: communication by Coaltion-2009)

Following an appeal submitted to the Central Electoral Commission of Moldova, the "Coalition 2009" has checked the voter rolls of 10 polling stations from Chisinau municipality selected at random. It found out that the total of signatures from the basic voter rolls, supplementary voter rolls and voters who cast their ballots at their voting residence did not coincide with the number of participants in voting indicated in the protocols of the polling stations concerned. The difference was from 78 to 107 people. The voter rolls of two out of the ten polling stations lack some pages. The supplementary list of a polling station has disappeared, while the protocol of the polling station concerned says that 92 people have voted on that list. The number of polling station is not mentioned on the supplementary list at 5 out of 10 stations and two stations did not put down the number of polling station on the voter rolls. In conclusion, the Coalition-2009 considers that these breaches and irregularities “in correlation with the 208 cases of wrong issuance of electoral protocols nationwide and irregularities found out in voter rolls selected at random in the Chisinau electoral constituency area could broach the fairness and freedom of expression of the April 5, 2009 voting.” (Source: azi.md)

“The impressive victory of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) at the April 5 parliamentary elections proves that ruling political forces of the European leftwing which promote progressive social policies enjoy public support.” This statement is part of a resolution by the Party of the European Left (PEL) concerning the postelection situation in Moldova. The resolution stresses that the international observers on behalf of the OSCE, PACE and European countries have appreciated the fair and democratic elections, while the conduct of the right-wing political parties over the vote of the Moldovan electorate is a clear proof of “their attitude towards democracy and people’s will.” The PEL condemns the violence and assaults “targeted at democracy in Moldova and rejects attempts by the right-wing political forces to operate a coup d’état and destroy Moldova’s state symbols.” As well, it expresses concern with the external involvement into violent actions against results of the free elections in Moldova and called upon European institutions to pay an increased attention to the Moldova-Romania relations in order to remedy the current situation. The PEL asks the Council of Europe and the European Parliament to make common cause with Moldovan people and support the democratic development and European aspirations of Moldovan society. (Source: Moldpres)

The Board of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) demanded Chisinau on Sunday, April 19 to hold repeat elections, fearing that the electoral process was gravely affected. The ELDR expresses deep concern that the April 5 elections did not respect principles such as freedom and fairness of appeals, especially with regard to validity of voter rolls, access to the media and transparency of the vote count process, according to a resolution adopted by this party. The ELDR criticises vehemently the reported arrests and inappropriate treatment of many students and supporters of the opposition and demands their immediate release. It also asks the European Commission to reconsider the election observance issue in countries covered by the OSCE. As well, the ELDR Board welcomes the approaching of this issue by the ALDE Group of the European Parliament and seeks repeat elections in Moldova under a strict international supervision. (Source: Agerpres)