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The national public broadcaster Teleradio Moldova will hold the first electoral debates for the July 29 legislative elections on Thursday, July 9. The order in which the first eight electoral contenders will participate in two rounds of debates was decided on Wednesday by draw. The debates on TV will start at 19.40, 21.40 and 22.30, while on radio — at 8.00, 11.00 and 17.00. The programs will last for 30 minutes. The contenders will have 12 minutes each. The program of the other competitors that submitted documents to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) but have not been yet registered will be set by draw on July 13. (Info-Prim Neo)

“After two weeks of electoral race, no improvement is noticed, the media become more active, the number of election-related stories is growing and they become more tendentious, more partial,” stated interim manager of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), Nadine Gogu, on July 8, at a news conference. “The radio and TV stations with national coverage continued to allow severe deviations from the ethical principles”, reads a press release issued by IJC. A team of observers monitored Moldova 1, Radio Moldova, NIT, Prime TV and EU TV, and has issued a second report regarding the period June 29 — July 5. “In some cases, the afore-mentioned stations breached the Audiovisual Code and the Regulation on coverage of election campaign, adopted by the Central Electoral Commission,” reads the monitoring report, developed within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections — Coalition 2009. (Info-Prim Neo)

Dressed in blue dungarees on the roof of a ten-floor building on Wednesday, young candidates for the Parliament that head the electoral list of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD), presented the party’s electoral platform titled “Restoration of Moldova”. “Now with a new image, the PPCD pleads for the change of the political generations and leaders. The Constitution should be modified so that the President of Moldova does not have the exclusive right to dissolve the Parliament. The President should only initiate a civil referendum on this matter. Also, the head of state should not have the exclusive right to appoint the Prime Minister, but be obliged to name that candidate that is proposed by the parliamentary majority. The members of the Government should be dismissed only by a decision of the Parliament,” the PPCD candidate Igor Ciuru said at a news conference. The young members of the PPCD promised that if they enter the Parliament, they will separate the political posts from the public ones. Ghenadie Vaculovschi, who tops the PPCD electoral list, said that the party aims to hasten Moldova’s European integration and the signing of the free trade, visa-free regime and association agreements with the EU. (Info-Prim Neo)

Councilor from Balti city, who run as independent candidate for the April 5 parliamentary elections, Sergiu Banari called on voters not to vote for the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM), the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) or for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), but to vote for the Liberal Party (PL), the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) or the Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) Alliance (AMN). On Wednesday, at a news conference he designated the PL, PLDM and AMN, as the only parties, which represent the opposition in Moldova. “As the majority of my voters were Russian-speaking people, I call upon them not to believe the myths, invented by the Communists that the opposition parties come out for the unification with Romania, that they do not observe the rights of the national minorities and do not respect their culture”, the councilor of Balti said. Banari together with his team of 300 companion-in-arms decided to participate in the election campaign, as anti-Communist volunteers to tell the truth about the 6–7 April protests and about danger of the Communists and their political supporters. (Infotag)

The Liberal Party (PL) demands that the central authorities stop supporting financially only the settlements that voted for the Party of Communists and freezing the accounts of other towns and villages, thus depriving their residents of public utilities. The Communist power constantly undermines authority of the local public administration by dictatorship and manipulation, PL Chairman Mihai Ghimpu said at a news conference on Wednesday. The PL leaders consider that because of destructive policy of the Communist government, the villages are now in the worst condition since the declaration of independence. They called upon the Communist authorities to ensure the local public autonomy by administrative and financial decentralization, not to condemn the villages and towns to underdevelopment, poverty and misery and to ensure equal development conditions for all the people, regardless of their political affiliation. (Info-Prim Neo)

Moldovan farmers assert that the state subventions are distributed in a chaotic manner, depending on political affiliation. They demand to raise the subvention fund to 1 billion lei in 2009 and to cancel the value added tax. Such statements were made at a news conference of Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) Alliance (AMN). Valeriu Cosarciuc, the head of the AMN electoral headquarters said 75% of the unofficial million of citizens working abroad are peasants. According to him, the government finds it convenient that the citizens leave massively the country. “Fewer people, fewer problems — this is how the Communist government thinks,” Cosarciuc said. Gheorghe Malcoci, a farmer from the rayon of Ialoveni, running for a seat in Parliament on behalf of the AMN, said the subventions for farmer are set at 300 million lei in the 2009 state budget, but should be raised to 1 billion. The farmers also complain about the shortage of sales markets. Alexei Ivanov from the rayon of Orhei said he cannot sell his output neither in Chisinau markets nor in other localities. Ion Barsa, a vine grower, said most of the vine growers left their business after losing the Russian market. At the same time the farmers say the EU market would be more convenient, because of the higher prices, but the export mechanisms do not function. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Youth Organization of the Liberal Party (PL) has requested the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to extend deadline to submit the applications for change of residence until July 24. The statement, which was handed in to the Central Electoral Commission. The youth also organized a meeting in front of the CEC building, where young liberals declaimed “We Want to Vote!”. About 50 people were holding posters with the following inscription: “Ciocan (CEC Secretary) does not allow students to vote!”, “Fifty thousand students may be deprived of the voting right!”, “We Want to vote at home!”, “Voting is our constitutional right!”, “Do not impede the youth to participate in elections!”. They also addressed to CEC Secretary Iurie Ciocan personally and asked him to give a reply, as soon as possible. “We shall consider your request at a CEC sitting and will give an answer, proceeding from the Election Code”, Ciocan said. He also donated two copies of the Election Code to Liberals to study the Code thoroughly. The young Liberals said that they will stage meetings until they receive a satisfactory answer. (Infotag)

The Party of Communists describes the country reintegration as the No.1 issue of Moldovan statehood, whose resolution would provide Moldova with the real perspective to join the European Union and build a sustainable, developed democratic society, Vasilii Sova, PCRM candidate to the Parliament, told a news conference on Wednesday. According to Sova, PCRM is so far the only party which calls for the country reintegration, restoration of civic cohesion and territorial integrity, peaceful and unarmed settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. Analysing the dynamic of the Transnistrian settlement process, Sova noted that building any consensus between the European Union and the Russian Federation regarding the fair settlement of the Transnistrian settlement makes Moldova a comfortable area for a strategic partnership between the West and the East. In this context, the candidate to the Parliament stressed that the economic integration of Transnistrian enterprises into the legal area of Moldova was completed in the last years thanks to the PCRM efforts, an international control was introduced on the Transnistrian section of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border, and all mediators of the Transnistrian settlement process are unanimous regarding the resolution of the territorial country reintegration issue in the “5+2” negotiation format. The representative of the ruling party is confident that no political party in Moldova except for PCRM has a programme or experts capable to settle this problem. (Moldpres)

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) promises to transform Moldova into a country of peace and prosperity if it wins the July 29 elections. On Wednesday, the party officially entered the electoral race and presented its team composed half of PSD members and half of members of the Centrist Union of Moldova (UCM). The PSD president Dumitru Braghis, who heads the electoral list, said that the party did not change the platform it used during the election campaign for the April 5 elections, but added some of the stipulations from the UCM’s program. He criticized the present government, accusing it of staging the April revolt in order to change certain things, including the buildings of the Parliament and the Presidency. Braghis called on his supporters to vote for the PSD, saying that the Social Democrats are neither vassals of the East nor vassals of the West. The informal leader of the UCM, who is the second on the list, Vasile Tarlev promised to make shocking revelations about the activities of the ruling Communists at regular news conferences. The higher pensions and salaries are not the PCRM merit, but of the technocrats, said Vasile Tarlev, who had been Prime Minister until March 2008. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) intends to demand from General Prosecutor’s Office to speak out on stirring up ethnic hatred by some mass media. PLDM leader Vlad Filat said at a news conference that the matter is of some mass media, which cooperate with the Communist authorities, but he refused to name these mass media. He said that after the Communists’ coming to power in 2001 they divided the society along ethnic criteria and the communist-controlled press was promoting sternly this idea. In particular, this press takes extracts from the opposition’s statements, compiles them and manipulates the public opinion in this manner. As an example, The PLDM leader quoted the statement of the PLDM member Iurie Leanca, which was so distorted that the Liberal Democrats were presented as the enemies of national minorities. (Infotag)