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Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin met Wednesday the head of the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission for the July 29 early parliamentary elections, Mr. Boris Frlec. Voronin welcomed the presence of OSCE observers in Moldova, reconfirming the firm intention of the Moldovan leadership to ensure free and fair elections on July 29, inclusively with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. In the context, the president noted that the purpose of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, other international observers to ensure democratic and fair early parliamentary elections match with the goals of Moldova’s leadership. He also revealed that the Moldovan authorities have released diverse initiatives and took concrete actions to remedy the shortcomings signalled during the April 5 parliamentary elections and ensure a fair election campaign, voting process and tabulation. In particular, the chief of state envisaged the electoral lists, the modification of the effective legislation to lower the electoral threshold for parties and the necessary turnout for validation of elections. (Moldpres)

There will be 9 more polling stations in July 29 parliamentary elections, than there were in the previous campaign. All of them started functioning on July 15. Eugeniu Stirbu, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), says that 4 more polling stations have been set up in Chisinau, and 5 more were set up in the country. The electoral bureaus consist from three local councilors and representatives of the parliamentary parties — PCRM, PL, PLDM and AMN, in function of the number of seats in the dissolved parliament. Eugeniu Stirbu says the CEC has started to hold seminars for the secretaries of the local councils, mayor offices and chair people of the electoral bureaus. “The seminars pursue to discuss issues related to preparing the polling stations, checking the voters lists and other organizational issues,” the CEC chairman says. 297 polling stations w ill function in Chisinau municipality. (Info-Prim)

Five Moldovan parties would clear the 5% electoral threshold if parliamentary polls were held in Moldova next Sunday. These are the ruling Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldov (PCRM), the opposition Liberal Party (PL), Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM), “Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova)” Alliance (AMN) and the Democratic Party (PD). These are the results of the opinion poll “Vox Populi 2009” conducted by the association of sociologists and demographers from July 1–10 among 1,592 respondents. The survey was made public on July 15. According to the opinion poll, the PCRM would muster 29.7% of the vote, the PL 13.3%, the PLDM 12.8%, the AMN 7.8% and the PD 7.1%. The PCRM enjoys the confidence of 44.5% of respondents. Next is the PL with 35.6%, the PLDM with 34.1%, and the AMN with 21.8% and the PD with 18.2%. Over 67% of respondents said they would go to the polls. (Infotag)

The leader of the ruling Party of Communists and Moldovan acting President Vladimir Voronin enjoys the highest confidence of the population, with his popularity rating standing at 22.3%. This is the conclusion of the opinion poll “Vox Populi 2009” conducted by the association of sociologists and demographers from July 1–10 among 1,592 respondents. According to the survey, Voronin is followed by the deputy leader of the [opposition] Liberal Party and Chisinau mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca, with 18% and the leader of the [opposition] Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova, Vlad Filat, with 14.9%. The three are followed by the new leader of the Democratic Party [and former Communist speaker], Marian Lupu, with 13.7% and Prime Minister Zinaida Greciani with 11.1%. The leader of the “Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova)” Alliance, Serafim Urechean enjoys the confidence of 10% of respondents. As many as 54% of respondents said that Moldova is heading in the wrong direction and over 77% said they were affected by the financial crisis. (Infotag)

Almost one third of Moldova’s population believes that the ruling Communist party gained the most from the 7–8 April protests in Chisinau, according to the opinion poll “Vox Populi 2009” conducted by the Moldovan Association of Sociologists and Demographers. The survey was presented at a news conference today. Over 23 per cent of respondents said that nobody gained anything from the protests, 19.7 per cent said that President Vladimir Voronin was the one to gain from them and 13.1 per cent said that it was the Liberal parties. One third of respondents could not answer whether the protests were backed from abroad and 24.9 per cent said they were not. As many as 24.5 per cent of respondents were confident that Romania was behind the protests, more than 12 per cent said that Russia backed them and 5 per cent said that it was the EU. Over 31 per cent of respondents said that the opposition organized the protests, 25 per cent said that it was a political provocation by the authorities and 11.5 per cent said that it was a youth protest. As many as 43.5 per cent of respondents said that the protest rally stopped because the Moldovan authorities scared the protesting youth. Over 18 per cent described the protests as an emotional splash which could not last too long, while more than 11 per cent said that the opposition did not want to lead the protests. Half of respondents said that Moldovans were not provided with reliable information about the 7–8 April events, each fourth said they were well informed and almost 24 per cent failed to answer. (Infotag)

The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM), Vlad Filat, today sent an open letter to Council of Europe’s (CE) Secretary-General Terry Davis, proposing that a new chapter on the 21st century communism should be added to the CE resolution condemning the 20th century totalitarian communist regimes. Filat read out the letter at a briefing, saying that “to our endless shame, Moldova continues to be a stain on Europe’s cheek”. “This is the only European country governed by a Communist regime. As a matter of fact, there is almost no difference between it and the other Communist regimes, which suppressed democracy in Europe in the 20th century for decades,” the PLDM leader said. Filat described the 7 April riots as “the peak of the Communist dictatorship”. “Video records of young people beaten up by police and of those who died after being beaten, records of mothers waiting in front of prisons for their tortured children and mothers looking for their children have been broadcast worldwide. Had these records been compared with the ones dating back to the times of the infamous Soviet NKVD, we would have found no big difference, although, at the first sight a situation like this is inconceivable in the 21st century Europe,” Filat said. (Infotag)

Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova will propose to political parties, which will accede to Parliament, after the elections of 29th of July, fives pillars for joint activity, which will be aiming at strengthening the society. President in office, Vladimir Voronin, PCRM leader, declared on Wednesday, during a press conference, these bench-marks concern the joint activity in overcoming the consequences of global economic crisis, the legislative and political common activity for European modernization of the Republic of Moldova, recognition of country’s reintegration as main task of Moldovan statehood, further development of national policy of Moldova based on strengthening and supporting Moldovan identity and other ethnicities of our country, as well as maintaining and strengthening the partnership between Moldova and Russia, as well as intensification of country’s efforts aiming at developing the multilateral cooperation within CIS. According to President, “these five principles will stay as very important ones for society’s consolidation”. Vladimir Voronin stressed that regardless of whether PCRM will hold more than 60 mandates in future Parliament, his party has the task and is obliged to initiate the consolidation of Moldovan society. “With any result that we will achieve in elections of July 29, we will have as basics precisely these five principles”, Voronin concluded. (Omega)

Vladimir Voronin, the leader of the Party of Communists, finds that the Moldovan opposition has changed 180 degrees in this ongoing campaign. The PCRM’s political opponents started to talk more about independence and the need for Moldova’s territorial unification, Voronin told a news conference on Wednesday, July 15. He has specified “this is a consequence of the pedagogical efforts made namely by the PCRM”. “They (opposition parties) nervously react to the accusations of xenophobia, try to attract the ethnic minorities. As an acting president, I am satisfied that the emotional call “Let’s defend our Motherland!”, some opposition parties with authority answered with a similar call. This inspires us that, during the post-election period, Moldova will avoid a repetition of the April 7 events,” Vladimir Voronin said. The PCRM leader declared himself surprised that the opposition parties, in the ongoing race, do not accuse the government of possibly rigging the elections, while such accusations were frequent in the previous campaign. Vladimir Voronin has found that two political forces take shape in the country. “The PCRM is on one side, consistently observing principles of opening to integration in the interaction with the European Union and with the CIS. On the other hand, there are four radical right-wing forces, which do not see in the state a defender of the interests of the majority, but only «a night watchman.» There is nothing to do, this is the logic of Liberalism. And our political parties seek to follow it as loyally as possible,” Voronin said. “The ones considering useless the resistance opposed by all the state institutions to the economic crisis and seeing their ideal in the present situation in Ukraine, have but to elect the parties led by Ghimpu, Lupu, Filat or Urecheanu,” stated the Communist leader. (Info-Prim)

The Republican Social-political Movement “Ravnopravie (Equality)” (MRR) declared that the Russian-speaking voters will support Party of Communists at the early parliamentary elections, which will take place on July 29. On Wednesday, Movement Chairman Valeri Climenco said at a news conference that all the movement members took such decision after all three liberal parties, which may pass to the Parliament, neglected Ravnopravie’s proposal to discuss the issue, how they intend to defend the interests of Moldova’s Russian-speaking population. “Only the Party of Communists responded to our proposal. We carried out consultations, where we received answers to all our questions. The matter is, in the first place, of the representatives of national minorities in the organs of state authorities, the functioning of the Russian language, the problem of the Russian-Moldovan relations”, Climenco said. (Infotag)

The healthcare sector in Moldova is outdated, while the medical institutions — morally and physically old, says the Liberal Party (PL). The Liberals consider that the healthcare system should be a national priority, especially the primary medical assistance system in rural areas. According to the statistical data, quoted by the PL, over 300 villages do not have doctors. Such large towns as Chisinau, Balti, Soroca, Orhei, Cahul and Ungheni experience a shortage of medical personnel, while about 14 districts have only 60–70% of the staff they need. The party considers that the cheapening of the cost of medicines in private drugstores is an electoral lie “because the government pursues an inequitable and non-transparent drugs policy”. The Liberals says that in order to improve the situation, the allocations from the budget for the healthcare sector should be raised to 7% of the GDP. There should be opened regional diagnosis centers outfitted according to the latest technical standards in the field. The healthcare system should be decentralized so that the medical institutions become autonomous. The salaries of the medical personnel should be raised considerably and all the people should have access to medical services of a high quality. (Info-Prim)

The young candidates for MP of the Christian-Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) Wednesday held a news conference at a counter at the Central Market in Chisinau, saying that this way they show that Moldova does not need intermediaries. “The intermediaries raise the prices two-three times until the products reach the consumers,” said the PPCD candidate Victor Ciobanu. The PPCD proposes a bill whereby the local public authorities commit themselves to issue permits of producer to all the national producers. The PPCD says that the national producer should be supported by the state by different subventions and substantial tax relief. “The foreign products enter easily Moldova and are much cheaper than the national ones,” said Sergiu Rabei, another PPCD candidate. “The Republic of Moldova can become a leading regional exporter of agricultural products only with the help of the state, which pledges to invest in this sector, optimize the lending conditions for the national producers and grant preferential loans,” Rabei said. (Info-Prim)

“Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova)” Alliance (AMN) is compelled to withdraw, from televisions, an electoral ad displaying people ill-treated or having died after the April 7 events. The Central Election Commission (CEC) adopted such a decision on July 14, following a complaint by the Party of Communists (PCRM). The PCRM argues, in its complaint to the CEC, that the AMN’s clip would be disfavoring it. “Impermissible hints are made, which severely affect the image of and slander the PCRM as an electoral contestant,” said Sergiu Sarbu, the PCRM’s representative at the CEC. Moreover, he says the images are distorted. CEC secretary Iurie Ciocan says the actions of the electoral participants in favor or against opponents must also take into account ethical norms. What is the measurement unit to show the severity of breaking the ethical norms. (Info-Prim)