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The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) is content with the results of a voter education and awareness campaign called “An Informed Voter — an Conscious Voter” that had been under way last several weeks. CEC deputy char, Renata Lapti, said at a press conference on Friday that that in the campaign’s framework the CEC had worked out, produced and placed 16 video clips, 12 electoral boards in Chisinau and 44 in the localities, 18 banner ads on the Internet, 6,540 brochures. Electoral spots were broadcast by 23 television channels, 10 radio stations, 5 video panels in Chisinau (540 appearances a day), and on the large screens of 27 supermarkets in Chisinau and Balti. Lapti said that for improving the electoral awareness of Moldovan citizens abroad, the Central Electoral Commission cooperated with the television companies of Portugal, Italy, Romania, with Moldovan satellite television companies, and some Internet websites. The voters abroad have received over 40 thousand election flyers. Lapti said the campaign had been organized and carried out thank to the assistance by the UNDP, the European Union, the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the International Organization for Migration, and the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT). (Infotag)

The polling stations opened in Moldova’s embassies abroad on July 29 will work from 07.00 to 21.00 (the local time of the country where the embassy is located), informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration in a press release. The voting process will be managed by the electoral bureaus of the polling stations set up at Moldova’s embassies and consular offices abroad. (Info-Prim Neo)

On July 29, Moldovan voters will provide an answer to Moldova’s crucial question — to be or not to be as a country and as a society, Moldova’s acting President and Chairman of the ruling Party of Communists Vladimir Voronin stated in his Appeal to compatriots today. He called the forthcoming elections as “the most responsible ones in the history of our state”. “For a first time ever, you will have to make a choice not between political programs and pledges of electoral contestants, not between the power and the opposition, but between development and chaos, between stability and pogroms, between civil dignity and political treason”, presumes the PCRM leader. Voronin stressed that “the inability to wage an open, civilized political struggle, to lose in an honest, democratic competition, and a boundless thirst for power prompted the liberal opposition leaders to a large-scale provocation last April 7… And only the authorities’ self-possession, only their understanding of the entire responsibility prevented the provocation from developing into a bloody massacre with inevitable human victims”. In his words, the government’s appeals to political peace and to quest for a compromise failed to be heard “because the liberal parties and their genuine masters sought a totally different outcome — an uncontrolled, defenseless, crushed and defeated Moldova”. (Infotag)

The Institute for Human Rights of Moldova (IDOM) has identified a series of irregularities in the voter rolls checked in 33 settlements of Moldova. The monitoring was carried out between June 27 and July 16, while the final report was presented at a news conference on Friday. IDOM determined that the persons that went abroad have been struck off the voter rolls in a number of settlements represented by the Party of Communists, like Dorotcaia, Parata and Larga. In five polling stations in Chisinau municipality, the IDOM observers discovered the names of 10 persons that died 4–5 years ago in the rolls. “This is an insignificant number, but, if taking into account that the IDOM monitors in the municipality of Chisinau interviewed 30 persons born before 1940, 10 cases is an extremely worrisome figure,” said project coordinator, independent, expert Vlad Lupan. According to Lupan, even if the representatives of the Central Electoral Commission recommended verifying the lists at home in 18 of the 33 settlements monitored by the IDOM, only seven local public authorities followed the recommendations. According to IDOM, the fact that the voter rolls include by about 6,000 voters more than for the spring elections is worrying. Vlad Lupan recommends that in the future the rolls should be posted at least 20 days before the elections. (Info-Prim Neo)

The quality and accuracy of the voter rolls remains a major problem before the July 29 parliamentary elections, say national observers. They warn that the inclusion of dead persons or persons that are not eligible to vote in the lists or the repeated inclusion of voters in the rolls — are conditions for vote rigging. These are the general findings of the preliminary reports prepared separately by the Association for Promotion of Legal Clinics of Moldova and the Alliance of Community Centers for Access to Information and Training of Moldova (Alliance CCAII). The Association checked the voter rolls in 200 polling stations of the country’s rayons, while the Alliance — in 25 polling stations in Chisinau municipality. The observers said that in many polling stations, the lists were posted with delay. Only 11% of the checked rolls were drawn up correctly. The other lists, according to the observers, contained dead persons or incomplete information about the voters — only the name and place of residence, without data from the identity card. “So that the lists could be modified on a short-term period, the observers and voters should have access to the rolls, while on a long-term period, there should be introduced a Common Voter Register,” Olga Straton, executive director of the Association for the Promotion of Legal Clinics said. (Info-Prim Neo)

“I know that often the public servants receive illegal orders, I know it’s very hard to oppose a criminal regime and risk your job when you have a family to feed,” stated Liberal-Democratic president Vlad Filat at a briefing on July 24. “I know that most of the public servants and state agency employees are honest people, who try to do their duty. Alone, one cannot change the situation and has to tacitly accept the requirements of the system,” Filat said in an address to the employees of law-enforcing bodies, the Service of Information and Security and prosecutors. “A crucial role in normalizing the situation and enforcing legality after elections rests with the employees of the SIS, Interior Ministry, Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption, the Prosecutor’s General Office, tax-levying bodies and courts. … On July 29, we can make things right. Voting against the Voronin regime is a civic deed of everyone saying no to lawlessness, violence and hatred,” added Vlad Filat. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Youth Organization of the Liberal Party has shared ribbons with the words “For Your Freedom” among passersby in the Square of Europe in the Central Garden of Chisinau on Friday. “Don’t be indifferent, convince your friends, colleagues and close persons to wear the ribbon “For Your Freedom” as a symbol of anticommunism. Regardless of your age and language that you speak, wear the ribbon and show that you are an anticommunist and want a free future at home,” the young Liberals say in a letter of appeal. (Info-Prim Neo)

His Sanctity Marchel, Bishop of Balti and Falesti, called on “believers” on Friday to honour their citizen duties on July 29 and “vote for a better future, for continuity of nice existing traditions, for stability and preservation of Moldova’s statehood.” Bishop Marchel said that “the elections this year have a special significance, as they take place on the 650th anniversary of the Moldovan State” and Christians must “contribute to strengthening it with the vote.” At the same time, Bishop Marchel noted that these are “visitation days” for the country and the Orthodox Church of Moldova “invites all political forces to cooperate for the sake of Moldovan people, statehood and tranquillity lost some months ago.” (Deca-press)

The Association of 1992 Transnistrian war veterans “Tiras-Tighina” has called upon citizens to vote on July 29 for opposition forces — the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova and the Moldova Noastra Alliance. At a news conference on Friday, Association Chairman Anatol Caraman read out an appeal to small political parties to give up their ambitions and follow the example of the National Liberal Party and the “Acţiunea Europeană” (European Action) socio-political movement, which withdrew the electoral race and called their electorates to cast ballots for the three main opposition forces. Caraman said that Vasile Tarlev and Marian Lupu, who have become politicians due to help from the Party of Communists, have now betrayed their benefactors and joined the Centrist Union of Moldova and the Democratic Party of Moldova, accordingly. He further held that during the eight years in power the ruling Party of Communists had systematically attacked the country’s national values — the language, history, state symbols. (Infotag)

Candidate for parliament on behalf of the Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) Alliance (AMN), chairman of the AMN Youth Organization in the Leova rayon Victor Tipa was detained by police on Thursday night, and is now being detained at the Cantemir police commissariat. Head of the AMN Youth organization Sergiu Baltaga stated at a news conference today the true reason of the detention is unknown, though he believes the police must have known for sure that, by law, they have no right to arrest candidates for parliament during an election campaign. Together with Victor, the police detained his brother Artur. (Infotag)

According to the police, the Cantemir police commissariat has held Victor Tipa, candidate for parliament on behalf of AMN and his brother Artur on “blackmail” charges.They were held after the CPR Cantemir has got a complaint from a citizen who signalled that unknown persons were threatening him and his family with physical revenge and were trying to extort 1,300 Euros from him under an invented pretext. The two brothers were held red-handed while they were cashing in 4,000 lei marked with a luminescent substance and special pen “blackmail” from the victim. After a corporal searching on Artur Tipa, the police found a mobile telephone stolen from an individual from the city of Cantemir. (Moldpres)

The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), ruling in Moldova since 2001, is destabilizing situation in the localities through paralyzing the activities of local administrations, the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) maintains. PDM Honorific Chairman Dumitru Diacov advised a news conference today about the latest such example that took place in the rayon of Hincesti this week, where the Communists and Christian Democrats in the Rayon Council (regional legislature) voted alike for dismissing Rayon Chairman and his 2 out of 3 Deputies. Diacov said the conflict in Hincesti “broke out for nothing”, without whatever sound reason, and “it has a definite smell of elections”. The fired Hincesti Rayon Chairman, Anatol Chetraru, stated that the PCRM/PPCD decision was unlawful because it was railroaded by the votes of 18 out of 33 members of the Council, though the necessary minimum for this has to be 24 votes. He believes the actions of the red-orange coalition in the Hincesti Rayon Council are counter-productive and are only doing harm to the rayon and its administration. (Infotag)

“The state machinery has worked against the Liberal Party and other opposition parties in this electoral race,” the deputy Chair of the Liberal Party (PL), Corina Fusu, told a news conference on July 24. “The whole electoral strategy of the PCRM has been grounded on the idea that Moldova is surrounded by external enemies, and, inside, the opposition is against the state and threatens the state. It’s a sheer trash invented by the Communists, after they tried to back it setting fire to the Parliament and the Presidency,” Fusu hold. Another PL Deputy Chair, Dorin Chirtoacă, stated: “From dawn to dusk, using servile state structures and media, the Moldovans receive doses of lies, so that they cannot realize what’s actually happens.” (Info-Prim Neo)

Party of Socialists of Moldova “Patria-Rodina (Motherland)” (PSMPR) calls on its supporters to vote for the Party of Communists (PCRM) in the snap elections of July 29. Its leaders told a news conference on July 24 that the PCRM is the only party that can insure “stability, peace and creation”. PSMPR has criticized the opposition parties, saying they pursue to oust the Communists at any cost. PSM Patria-Rodina leader Eduard Smirnov accuses the Liberal Party (PL), the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) and Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) Alliance (AMN) of having organized the April turmoil and destroyed “everything built during the Soviet era.” At the same news conference, the party’s secretary Valentin Krylov criticized “the Marian Lupu project”. “Lupu’s image is deceitful. Although he pushes a very attractive political message: “The political war must stop”, at the same time he says he won’t negotiate with the Communists”, Krylov has noted. (Info-Prim Neo)

The Alliance of Young Patriots from Causeni made after the April 7 events will support the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) at the early elections on July 29. Alliance chairman Stefan Cucerovschii has told a news conference that the organisation will support the PCRM at the early elections because electing this party would mean defending the Motherland. As well, Cucerovschii was confident that the absolute victory of PCRM is the only way to help Moldova regain stability and sure sustained development prospects. (Basa-press)