alegeri.md

Central Electoral Commission ruled that voters of Corjova village, Dubasari district, will vote during the parliamentary elections of November 28 in the neighbouring village hall of Cocieri. CEC decision was adopted “taking into account the fact that in recent years unconstitutional Tiraspol authorities have prevented through various methods the voters of this village to participate in elections”. Earlier, the electoral council in Corjova decided to change the polling station from the local high school to the gymnasium, but CEC has annulled even that decision for the same reasons.

At the meetings on November 23, CEC:

• approved the financial report on revenues and expenditures of some electoral competitors and warned the Social Political Movement “RAVNOPRAVIE” for the failure to submit financial report;
• announced that Friday is the deadline for submitting financial reports by electoral competitors;
• based on requests by some political parties, the CEC has made last changes to the lists of candidates;
• agreed to conduct an exit poll by the Centre for Sociological Research and Marketing CBS-AXA (in 71 polling stations);
• accredited a number of national and international observers, foreign journalists who will monitor the parliamentary elections on November 28;
• approved the Instruction on the procedure for conducting a test of direct and secret voting for people with sight disabilities.

According to the findings of the Alliance Progeny-Elections 2010, the parliamentary elections of November 28 is characterised by a traditionally low presence of women on the lists of candidates, since women constitute just 28.4% of them, while the women-voters are about 53% of the total number .According to the representatives of the Alliance, in total, on the lists of candidates, out of 1962 persons 558 are women and only 33 of them are on the first ten positions in the lists proposed by the parties. That is how the women’s chances to get into Parliament are considerably reduced. Neither electoral platforms would show that political parties respect the principles of gender equality, and monitoring the written media coverage of electoral candidates shows that women appear in images only with men, not individually.

The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) presented the results of the 5th stage (November 8 to 14, 2010) of monitoring how the major media in Moldova reflect the parliamentary election campaign. The general conclusions reveal the same trends in media:

• 10 monitored broadcasters were broadcasted 3288 materials and programs that fall under the scope of monitoring, increasing by 16.6%;
• public channels Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova offered access to the news and special electoral programs to a big number of election competitors, ensuring a diversity of opinions. However, d in terms of appearance in news context, Moldova 1 is slightly disadvantaging PCRM;
• nationwide private station Prime TV mainly reflected in newscasts and opinion programs, slightly favouring PDM;
• private channel NIT is the only TV station that openly performs political partisanship in favour of PCRM, does not provide a diversity of opinions in newscast;
• nationwide private channel 2 Plus continue to have a passive coverage of the campaign;
• region-wide channel N$ provided pluralism of opinion in the news, but it can be argued that it favours PLDM;
• in case of Publika TV news station it is not obvious any clear trend favouring certain candidates;
• at Jurnal TV the competitors were presented mainly neutral, but the channel favours the PNT and disadvantages PCRM;
• Radio Vocea Basarabiei disadvantages PCRM and slightly favours PL;
• the Prime FM radio station disadvantages PCRM.

In print media/ Press agencies / Web portals:

• number of materials that reflect the campaign slightly increased, the volume of political advertising of electoral competitors, posted in newspapers, has doubled;
• opinion materials prevailed again over the news;
• a number of newspapers published electoral advertisements inappropriately marked. (source: Report no.5 CIJ)

Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament (ICPC) has summoned a press conference in reaction to the publication of the list of candidates who do not meet the criteria of integrity and informed that on November 22, 2010 the Chisinau Centre Court has issued an enforcement order which prohibits dissemination of information through media and through printed information with the status of “propaganda leaflets” regarding the inclusion of the applicant Alexandru Oleinic in the “blacklist”. ICPC has complied with the order, but appealed against it and will seek recovery of all costs of printing undistributed bulletins “Know your candidate!”. ICPC members presented their arguments, informing the public about the fact that the published information is based on official documents such as decisions of the Court of Accounts, which have not been challenged by those concerned at the time of issuance or thereafter, for which reasons they remain in force and are the public information. ICPC acts were also challenged by PDM and PCRM.

The party Our Moldova Alliance (AMN) calls on democratic parties to confirm in advance the availability to reconstruct, after the parliamentary elections of November 28, the European Integration Alliance and refusal to collaborate with PCRM. AMN representative Victor Osipov stated at a press conference that it requires an electoral message that would provide the voters with confidence that democratic parties are ready to cooperate.

The Humanist Party of Moldova requests the authorities to ban public demonstrations on November 28 and December 1, so as to prevent repetition of the sad experiences of April 7, 2009.

In a press release issued by PUM, the announced visit of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is considered a provocation that may complicate the Russian-Moldovan relations and the socio-political situation in Moldova before the elections.

PCRM has disseminated the news about physical assault against a candidate on its list, former SIS director, Artur Reşetnicov, who was allegedly kidnapped, mistreated and threatened by unknown persons on the evening of November 22. PCRM sais it is outraged by the reaction of the General Prosecution Office and believes that government representatives would be the responsible ones for this case. However, PCRM calls on society, encouraging all voters to come and say “No” to the current governance, and the Reşetnicov case is being qualified as “crime against democracy”.

Several political parties and independent experts declared that this case of kidnapping seems to be staged, without excluding the participation of PCRM representatives in this process.

The party European Action Movement proposes to some parties “with parliamentary representation” (PCRM, PLDM, PL, PDM, AMN, PMU and MAE) to participate in public debate, with an independent moderator, so that they can be taken by all interested broadcasters. MAE believes that such a debate could take place on Friday, November 26, the last day of the electoral campaign.

Representatives of Socialist Party of Moldova (PSM), a party not participating in the current electoral campaign, states that the current governance would aim at loosing the independence and being controlled by the European Union. PSM urged voters to vote for PCRM.

PPCD President Iurie Rosca encouraged the President of the European People’s Party (EPP), Wilfried Martens, to quit the intention to support the PLDM in elections of November 28 and to accept PLDM in the family of European Christian Democrats. Rosca states he would not like “a hasty decision of EPP partners to put them in a very difficult situation, when a fellow of political family would get on dock for very serious crimes such as mass disorder with attacks against law enforcement bodies and causing a huge material damage and economic crimes”. According to Rosca, direct support provided to the party led by Prime Minister Vlad Filat in the current campaign may cause severe damage to the image of the EPP and the European institutions in general.