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The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) launched a hotline that the voters can use to ask questions about the voting procedure in the July 29 parliamentary elections. According to a CEC communication the persons eligible to vote can dial 0 800 33300 from any settlement of Moldova. The call is free of charge. The hotline of the Central Electoral Commission will work between July 3 and July 24, Monday through Friday from 8.00 until 17.00, with a pause between 12.00 and 13.00. No contestations or complaints can be made on this phone number. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Orhei-based office of the Liberal Party (PL) was set on fire by unidentified persons. The arson was set out early on July 3 after 6:00 a.m. According to Sergiu Miron, chairman of the territorial organisation of PL, the arson destroyed the entry door, the floor and other estates. An investigation is underway. (jurnal.md)

Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova, Vlad Filat launched an initiative for creating a special fund, “April 2009”, to be opened at a Moldovan bank for raising means in support of “victims of Communist tortures”. Filat told a news conference today the fund will be managed by a representative Administrative Aboard that will comprise torture victims, too. The money will be used for providing legal assistance to such persons, for their physical and moral rehabilitation, and for their reintegration into the society. Vlad Filat announced he had already made his first personal contribution to the fund — 60,000 lei. Half of the sum will be given to the family of Valeriu Boboc “murdered during the tragic events last April”, and the other half will be divided between the families of other three victims — Eugen Tapu, Ion Tibuleac, and Maxim Kanishev. PLDM stands for an international investigation of the April events in Chisinau “to let the world learn the truth”. (Infotag)

The Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) may well become the second most important force in the next Moldovan Parliament, presumes the just resigned Director of the Association for External Policy (APE), political scientist Andrei Popov, who is standing the number 4 on the PDM list for the July 29 snap parliamentary elections. Popov told a news conference today, the next Parliament will not have a dominating force, and that “centrist forces, like PDM, always find themselves in a more advantageous position at negotiations”. Andrei Popov announced he had just tendered resignation as APE Director and is going to devote himself entirely to politics. He said that has decided to join the Democratic Party of Moldova because he shares the ideas promoted by this organization, particularly after ex-speaker Marian Lupu had come to stand at the head of this party. According to Popov, the Democratic Party of Moldova is a left-centrist force, so it is naturally counting on the electorate from this sector of the political spectrum, as well as on the 40% voters that did not go to the polls last April 5 elections. “We want to give an alternative to the Moldovan electorate”, concluded Andrei Popov. (Infotag)

The employees of the Riscani district Praetor’s Office found in the institution’s basement over 1000 ballot papers. They were designed for elections of the Mayor of Chisinau, held on June 3, 2007. The basement concerned is shared by the Riscani district Praetor’s Office and the Riscani district Court. (press release by Chisinau City Hall)

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) decided Friday, July 3, after having checked the submitted documents, to register the National Liberal Party as electoral candidate to the July 29 early parliamentary elections. PNL will be the 7th candidate on ballot papers. The PNL list is headed by leader Vitalia Pavlicenco, followed by deputy chairman Anatol Revenco. Alexandrei Can is the No. 3 candidate on the list. Thirty percent of the PNL candidates to the Parliament are from Chisinau. PNL promises to call for liberal reforms in the business area at national level. It will seek Moldova’s withdrawal from the CIS through a strategic partnership with Romania, which would allow Moldova to join NATO and European Union. Twelve PNL candidates declared that they hold the citizenship of other countries, too, while another 14 have applied for a foreign citizenship. At the April 5 parliamentary elections the PNL was part of the “Actiunea Europeana” (European Action) Movement and gathered 1.01 percent of the votes versus 6-percent electoral threshold. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Social-Democratic Party (PSD) and the Centrist Union of Moldova (UCM) Friday submitted the documents for being registered as runners in the July 29 legislative elections to the Central Election Commission. The parties will run in elections under a joint list, of the PSD. The two parties fielded by an equal number of candidates. The list is headed by Dumitru Braghis, the president of the PSD. He is followed by Vasile Tarlev, the informal leader of the UCM. Dumitru Braghis told the reporters that the person that will head the list was decided by a draw between him and Vasile Tarlev. The vice president of the UCM Mihai Petrache is not on the list. Vasile Tarlev said that it was Petrache who decided not to run as a candidate. The list also does not include representatives of the Moldova Unita Party with which the PSD carried out talks. “We have two places vacant on the list,” Braghis said, implying that the two positions could belong to the given party. Braghis did not speak about the message of the PSD and UCM in the election campaign, but said that the economic crisis, the lack of a political center that could balance the right and left wings and the development of a strategy on Moldova’s statehood are their major objectives. “The list of candidates for MP contains teachers, persons working in culture and healthcare, doctors habilitate and economists with whom we will manage to take Moldova out of the economic crisis that had ignored by the ruling party for so long,” Vasile Tarlev said. Dumitru Braghis voiced hope that the PSD and UCM would merge in autumn. The deadline for the submission of documents for being registered as candidates in elections is July 7. The PSD is the eighth party that filed the documents. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Liberal Party is demanding dismissal of Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, Prime Minister Zinaida Grechanaya, Minister of the Interior Gheorghe Papuc, Minister of Health Larissa Catrinici, and Prosecutor General Valeriu Ghurbulea. LP Deputy Chairman, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca stated at a news conference today these people must tender resignations after investigators had published on Thursday the real reason of the death of Valeriu Boboc during the April 7–8 protesting. Chirtoaca said, international forensic experts have proved that “Valeriu Boboc was beaten to death by the police. He was slaughtered on April 7/8 night on his way home on the eyes of many witnesses. We have learnt by now that Boboc did not take part in the acts of vandalism in parliament or presidential palace. He was just an onlooker — one of the hundreds that were standing and watching the scene”. Dorin Chirtoaca stated the police are thus guilty of murdering the innocent young man, the Prosecutor General and Minister of Health are guilty of concealing the real reason of his death, and the President and Prime Minister are guilty of their failure to ensure the observance of human rights and public order, which has eventually led to human deaths and tortures of citizens. In his words, he has many a time offered the country leaders to join public efforts to normalize the situation, but the offers remained unanswered. He stated the Liberal Party shall work to bring to responsibility all those state officials through whose fault the tragic events became possible. (Infotag)

Residents from the Territorial Administrative Unit of Gagauzia have changed their electoral preferences. This assessment was made by a candidate to the Parliament on behalf of the Party of Communists, the secretary of the Comrat-based executive committee of PCRM, Mrs. Irina Vlah. “We have lost the governor elections once; we have won insufficient seats in the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia once. But the situation has radically changed since and the fact that 65 percent of the residents there have elected the PCRM proves that electors from Gagauzia realised that the PCRM alone is capable to guarantee a real support to the Gagauz region,” Irina Vlah told a news conference on Friday, being confident that the PCRM would gain at least 70 percent of the votes of Gagauz residents at the early elections. (Omega)

AMN has appealed upon Prosecutor’s General Valeriu Gurbulea and SIS director Artur Resetnicov to investigate Communist Vladimir Turcan as organiser of the April 7 vandalism acts. The party seeks the opening of a case under Article 341 of the Criminal Code on “calling for subversion or violent change of the constitutional rule of Moldova.” “This appeal is based on the records aired by Jurnal TV, which feature the former head of the parliamentary legal commission instructing the provokers, planning the carrying of the EU and Romanian flags on key state institutions,” AMN leaders stated. At the same time, the party fears that nominating Vladimir Turcan as chairman of the state commission for investigating the April 7 events aimed to block an inquiry which would have revealed the true role of organiser of the communist leadership in vandalising the headquarters of the Parliament and Presidency. (jurnal.md)

The Central Electoral Commission made a decision today recommending the public company “Teleradio-Moldova” to open public debates for all registered electoral candidates on Wednesday, July 8. Under the CEC decision, the Board of Observers of the public broadcaster is due to modify the internal regulation of the institution in terms of coverage of the electoral campaign, as it stipulates the opening of debates on July 13. CEC considers that by setting this date for the opening of debates, the Board of Observers did not take into account the provision of the Election Code that obliges public broadcasting institutions to organise debates throughout electoral campaign, while private media outlets hold the right to do it. The CEC decision entered into force when adopted. (Moldpres)

Tatiana Timbalist could be the No.9 contestant on ballot papers as independent candidate, should the Central Electoral Commission gave green light to her application. She applied to CEC on Friday, July 3.