alegeri.md

The Central Electoral Commission is asking broadcasters including online TV channels which decided to organise electoral debates to start airing such programmes as soon as possible. It stressed in a communication that electoral debates provide people with the necessary information framework capable to help them make an aware choice. (CEC communiqué)

Forty-nine radio and TV channels will cover the electoral campaign for the early parliamentary elections set for late July 2009. The Central Electoral Commission made an announcement in this respect on June 30. It revealed that 23 TV channels and 26 radio channels have told the Commission that they are going to cover the events related to the parliamentary elections. Among them, 18 TV channels and 7 radio channels promised to organise electoral debates. The following broadcasters said that they would not cover the electoral campaign: Pervii Canal Moldova, 2 PLUS, VDT, Radio Scaparici, Megapolis FM. CEC was confident that the active participation of broadcasters in covering the electoral campaign provide people with the possibility to be informed from more sources, so that to make an aware choice. (Moldpres)

An OSCE/ODIHR Mission will monitor the early parliamentary elections in Moldova. This issue was discussed during a June 30 meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Stratan, minister of foreign affairs and European integration, and Ambassador Boris Frlec (Slovenia), head of the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission to the early parliamentary elections. The mission made of 16 basic electoral experts, 20 long-term observers and 200 short-term observers deployed by OSCE member states will work nationwide throughout electoral campaign. Boris Frlec assured the Moldovan foreign minister that observers are unbiased, expressing optimism that the previously signalled shortcomings will be remedied this time. The mission head noted that the electoral process began in a calm atmosphere, without administrative pressures on electoral contestants. (Basa-press)

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) accredited Tuesday the first observers to monitor the July 29 parliamentary elections. According to CEC, 65 persons were accredited as national observers on behalf of the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights. Another 20 international observers were accredited on behalf of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR). (CEC communiqué)

On June 30, 2009, the National Liberal Party (PNL) applied to the Central Electoral Commission for the registration as electoral candidate. CEC members decided the same day at 17:00 to record beforehand the party on ballot paper as the No. 7 candidate. (CEC communiqué)

Nearly 20 state officials, taking part in the parliamentary election campaign on opposition parties’ lists, have not yet applied for suspending their official activities for the campaign period. They are thus violating the electoral legislation in force, the Moldovan Central Electoral Commission has reported. The CEC explained that on the lists regarded, there are 43 such law-stipulated officials. Of them, only 26 have met this legal requirement, so far. In particular, no suspending applications have been filed yet by 7 candidates standing for parliament on the PDM list, 3 candidates each — from PPCD and AMN, and two candidates each from PL and PLDM. Under the Election Code, upon registration as electoral contestants, civil servants such as ministers, heads of central administration institutions, chairpersons of Moldovan rayons (districts), mayors, praetors and their deputies must suspend their main official activities. (Infotag)

“Actiunea Europeana” (European Action) Movement (MAE) is considering some forms to participate in the early elections on July 29. MAE chairman Anatol Petrencu told a news conference on Tuesday, June 30, that participating with an own list would be “the worst version”. Petrencu noted that he is negotiating a compromise with the Liberal Party, Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova and “Moldova Noastra” (Our Moldova) Alliance. “The best way would be issuing a common list of the 41 legislators who entered the Parliament after April 5 and candidates on behalf of non-parliamentary opposition parties,” he stressed, adding that the list should also include 2–3 MAE members. Other solutions considered by MAE envisage the issuing of a common list with a non-parliamentary party, issuing a common list with one of the three opposition parliamentary parties, and the latter would cover all campaign-related expenses. (Info-Prim Neo)

Conservative Party (PC) reiterates the need for a single common list of candidates of the democratic anticommunist forces of Moldova, in the early parliament elections on July 29. PC made a similar appeal at the beginning of June. Natalia Nirca, the CP leader considers that the choice of the parliamentary opposition parties to participate in the elections by themselves is a mistake. She stressed that PC is ready to participate in a joint political project and contribute with human and financial resources to “a common national cause”. The Conservatives expressed their concern with the fact that the political parties running in the parliamentary race have very unequal opportunities. (Info-Prim Neo)

Regional subdivisions of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) keep on quitting PSD. On Tuesday, decisions to quit the party have been officially announced by the Hincesti rayon (district) organization of the PSD (over 400 persons) and by 10 members from the Straseni rayon organization. Hincesti Social Democrats wrote in their statement they had decided to leave upon learning how the PSD Chairman, former Moldovan Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis was going to resolve the Transnistrian conflict — through passing the rebel region into a concession to the Russian Federation for 30 years. Their other reason was the continuing internal party policy far from democracy and transparency provided by current leadership that “promotes strategies and decisions that can’t give any perspectives to the party”. “We are so strongly disappointed with the PSD leadership’s participation in the April 7 events in Chisinau, because rank and file Social Democrats stand for the statehood of the Republic of Moldova, and are categorically against vandalism and a coup d’etat”, the statement said. Practically same arguments can be found in the statement issued by the Social Democrats from the Straseni rayon. (Infotag)

Monitored televisions, and, first of all, Moldova 1, N4 and NIT, differently covered, as frequency and duration, political actors, thus creating unequal and imbalanced visibility to them. The conclusion is contained in a report on monitoring the coverage of political actors by 9 TV stations. The report has been compiled by the Electronic Press Association (APEL) from June 1 through 16, 2009. According to the report, the monitored televisions generally pursued the same policies in editing news and programs about politicians and state institutions, as during the run-up to April 5 elections. Three stations — Moldova, N4 and NIT — put in a positive context and favored, preponderantly, the representatives of the political power and disfavored parliamentary opposition representatives. Monitoring reports compiled by APEL and other media NGOs are permanently criticized by the administration of the public broadcaster “Teleradio-Moldova”. Unlike other previous monitoring sessions, the results of the one lasting from June 1 to 16 find that, on most of the televisions, the number of conflict related stories using more info sources exceeds the number of the stories written on the basis of a single sources. Most often, the legal requirements and the professional norms in writing the conflict stories are breached by NIT. On the contrary, Pro TV Chisinau and TV7 proved their devotion to the standards of independent journalism. (Info-Prim Neo)

Gagauzia Bashkan (Governor) Mikhail Formuzal has requested the mayors of the autonomous region’s towns and villages to take the drawing up of voter registers under their personal, strict control. Formuzal told a news conference today that although the previous ordinary parliamentary elections of April 5 were organized in Gagauzia fairly well, perhaps the only major problem that would not be solved to the very end has been the problem with voter rolls. The Bashkan requested the town and village mayors to welcome party representatives and candidates for parliament with hospitality and ensure them equal conditions for electoral struggle. (Infotag)

Chairman of the Constitutional Court (CC), Dumitru Pulbere, has declared on Tuesday for journalists that the “so-called” proofs presented by parliamentary opposition parties to the CC, were not but “scrap paper” when submitted, because lost its evidence power. “In each activity, there are some rules that cannot be breached. The Election Code stipulates clearly that when the voter rolls are drawn up, every person who does not appear on the list may submit a request to be included in it. At the moment when some breaches of the Election Code are registered, they shall be contested either before the Electoral Bureau, or before the Central Electoral Commission, or before the law court that have the mandate to take decisions. If correct or not, this is the procedure”, Dumitru Pulbere declared. (Omega)

Vladimir Turcan, the parliamentarian of PCRM, declared on Wednesday that the proofs on rigging the April5 elections, submitted by the parliamentary liberal parties proved to be false after the verifications. According to Turcan, precisely these falsifications were used by liberal parties to “provoke” the young people, who believed to theirs sayings, to come out on streets on April 6–7, 2009. “From political point of view, the declarations made by oppositional parties are irresponsible, and from legal point of view they are quite responsible, because the authors of these declarations may be held liable”, Turcan mentioned. (Omega)

The Democratic Party’s youth organization has demanded from the Moldovan Government to provide proper voting conditions for Moldovan students during the July 29 early parliamentary elections. The PD youth organization issued a statement today, reading that in the conditions of slackly written legislation norms for students’ participation in voting, the mechanisms proposed by the Central Electoral Commission appear to be inefficient. The Democratic Youth has requested the Government to organize a free traveling possibility for students to their study places and back home on July 29. (Infotag)