alegeri.md

The “Actiunea Europeana (European Action)” Social-political Movement (MAE) has officially withdrawn from the electoral race, the party’s leader Anatol Petrencu announced at a news conferee on July 22. “The MAE will support the anticommunist parties that have chances of entering the Parliament,” Petrencu said. MAE filed the documents to be withdrawn from the race on July 21 and the Central Electoral Commission accepted them. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Moldovans eligible to vote who will not be able to go to the polling station to vote on health grounds or because they are in detention places can ask for the mobile ballot box in written or oral form starting with the tenth day before the elections until 15.00 on Election Day. This applies to persons who cannot move owing to health problems, who are in remand centers, who are in prison but their sentence is not definitive, who serve an administrative sentence in the form of arrest, who were sentenced to imprisonment for minor and less serious offences, as well as to persons who are in health spas, holiday resorts or hospitals. At least two members of the electoral bureau will take the mobile box to the voter’s place together with the things needed for voting: the additional electoral roll signed by the head and the secretary of the electoral bureau, the ballot, the special stamp “ELECTIONS 05.04.09” that is put in the identification papers, the stamp “Voted” and a pad. The team that conveys the mobile box can be accompanied by monitors. The mobile box is available until 20.00. By 21.00, it must be back at the polling station. (Info-Prim Neo)

Toll-free electoral information hotline — 080055000 — launched within the framework of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections — Coalition 2009 receives daily around 20 calls. The most frequently asked questions are related to the voting procedure, procedure on issuing the contestations and checking of voter rolls. The voters are asking how their relatives from aboard can vote, how to check if they are in voter rolls, declared Ion Creanga, a hotline operator, consultant in an electoral monitoring program. (Info-Prim Neo)

Romania’s Marian-Jean Marinescu will head the delegation of European Parliament observers to the July 29 early parliamentary elections in Moldova. According to a press release issued by the Romanian delegation to the European Parliament, while in Chisinau, the European parliamentarians will hold meetings with the representatives of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, ambassadors of European Union member countries to Moldova, the Delegation of the European Commission to Moldova, with European Union Special Representative for Moldova Kalman Mizsei and the representatives of non-governmental organizations of Moldova. (Infotag)

The European Union has called upon the authorities and political parties of Moldova to ensure free and fair elections on July 29, the freedom of expression, media freedom, equal conditions for all electoral contestants, observation of the right of assembly, and putting an end to intimidation of the mass media, non-governmental organizations and political parties. This call has been expressed by the Bucharest-based Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Moldova Mats Aberg and European Union Special Representative for Moldova Kalman Mizsei at the meeting with Moldovan Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii. Mats Aberg said this message had been sent to Chisinau on the initiative of the Swedish presidency of the European Union, and it had been approved by all the 27 European Union member states, which seek to support democratic values in Moldova and its continuous and sustainable development. The Swedish diplomat appreciated the Moldovan authorities’ efforts aimed at ensuring a free and correct election on July 29. He spoke out against using tough rhetoric by electoral contestants, and confirmed the European Union’s readiness to promote a constructive dialog that would ensure a political consensus to thus achieve political stability in the republic and a normal functioning of its main state institutions. (Infotag)

The Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) has proposed founding a State Agency for handling the problems of Moldova citizens staying abroad. PLDM First Deputy Chairman, lawyer Alexandru Tanase told a news conference today the Agency will be called to provide necessary documents and ensure legalization of compatriots abroad, will be helping their social reintegration upon returning home, and, essentially, will be taking care of the gastarbeiters’ children remaining at home. “I visited Paris recently, and saw that an overwhelming majority of our compatriots stay in France in desperate conditions. Many of them live without documents in houses, whose technical condition is awful. Our embassy in Paris provides these people with documents at enormous tariffs, e.g. 54 euros for a letter of attorney valid only 10 days, or 39 euros for a «white passport», and the like”, he said. Tanase voiced indignation that only 12 days before elections the Moldova Embassy in Paris was unable to provide even basic information about the forthcoming elections. In his words, the embassy in Paris has requested the Central Electoral Commission in Chisinau to send in 50% fewer ballot-papers than last April 5, “which will again create problems during voting”, believes Alexandru Tanase. (Infotag)

Vasile Boldurescu, Chairman of the PCRM faction in the Calarasi Rayon Council, has announced his quitting the ruling party and joining the Democratic Party of Moldova. He released a written statement that he had long waited when the PCRM leadership would put into life their promise to transform the organization into a modern, European-type left party, but his expectations did not come true. Boldurescu believed for quite long that a reform and modernization of the Party of Communists would be carried out by Marian Lupu, but now that Mr. Lupu has gone, this objective is no more topical for the ageing PCRM leaders. He also wrote that the April 7 events and the Communists’ attempts to divide the Moldovan society into friends and foes are the result of purely electoral, instant interests that work contrary to the country’s national interests. (Infotag)

The Liberal Party has demanded from the Government to stop its interference in the policy of entering higher educational institutions. On Wednesday, PL parliamentarian Ana Gutu remarked at a news conference that on May 20 the Government took a decision on reducing the number of students in higher educational institutions until 2014 by 30% that will constitute 15.6 thousand people. “The Government must not interfere into the policy of entering higher educational institutions, as it confronts with Article 35 of the Constitution, which declares the unhampered right of each citizen for receiving an education of any level”, she recalled. (Infotag)

For the July 29 legislative elections, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) will print by about 56,000 ballots more than for the April 5 elections, the Commission’s Chariman Eugeniu Stirbu announced at a briefing on July 22. The figure is preliminary. It represents the approximate number of persons that came or will come of voting age in the period between the two elections. A number of 2 683 553 ballots will be printed by July 25 inclusive. 2 000 840 of the ballots will be in Romanian, while the rest in Russian. The ballots will be sent to the electoral bureaus of the polling stations on July 28. The number of poling stations will be by nine units larger. 1,987 polling places will be set up in Moldova overall. About 20,000 electoral officials will be involved in the organization and holding of the early elections. On the Election Day, CEC will provide information about the turnout of voters every three hours. So far, CEC the Commission has accredited 122 international observers and 2,374 national observers from different nongovernmental organizations and diplomatic missions. Those that want to monitor the elections can file applications by July 24. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Youth Organization of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) asked the Council of Europe, the European Union and OSCE to provide financial assistance for transporting the students to the polling stations on Election Day. “About 70% of the students that have residence visas in dormitories are now on vacation. They did not manage to file applications to be allowed to vote at the place where they will be on the Election Day. The term set by the Central Electoral Commission was short as the students were busy with the exams and theses,” the Organization’s member Ludmila Lupu said at a news conference on July 22. “If we obtain money to ensure the transportation of students, the problem will be solved,” she added. The AMN Youth Organization considers that international and national observers should monitor the transportation of students so as to prevent the placement of obstacles, as it happened on other occasions. (Info-Prim Neo)

“Posta Moldovei” (state postal enterprise) has disseminated leaflets nationwide which invite people to “Elect the No.1”. This action was signaled both by the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) and Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM). The Party of Communists is the No.1 candidate on ballot papers. Therefore, PDM and PLDM appealed to the Central Electoral Commission. In its turn, Posta Moldovei denies the accusations, saying that “one should not raise any doubts or fussiness once it sees the booklet.” Posta Moldovei disseminates leaflets “Elect the No. 1” with calendars on the verso. According to PLDM and PDD representatives, the leaflets do not advertise the post, as it is a single institution and does not have rivals: “instead, PCRM is the No. 1 candidate on the ballot paper.” (unimedia.md)

A handful of top leaders of the ruling Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) feel free to privatize state property exclusively in their personal interests, not for the good of Moldovan society, maintains the Chairmen of both the Social Democratic Party, Dumitru Braghis and the Centrist Union of Moldova, Vasile Tarlev. Tarlev, who headed the Communist Government of Moldova in 2001 through 2008, stated at a news conference on Wednesday that one example of such privatization, “bringing nothing but damage to Moldova”, was the sale of multi-storied Hotel National in the heart of Chisinau to Alfa-Engineering company of Estonia for merely US$2.5 million in October 2006. “The sale agreement stipulated that the foreign owner would invest US$33 million in hotel development, would repair its building, restaurant, casino etc., but nothing has been done until now”, said the former Prime Minister. In his words, another disadvantageous transaction was the sale of the “Mezon” plant in Chisinau to a Singapore company for US$8.8 million in November 2008. Tarlev said that in the years of his premiership, foreign buyers were offering US$12 million and more for this electronic enterprise of the former USSR military-industrial complex. Dumitru Braghis, Tarlev’s predecessor on the prime ministerial office, called on the Communist authorities to suspend the ruinous privatization process that is absolutely unprofitable for the national economy, and to re-nationalize enterprises of state importance — with due observance of their shareholders’ rights. (Infotag)