alegeri.md

On August 17, 2010, the Civil and Administrative Collegium of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) rejected the appeal filed by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) challenging the decision taken by CEC concerning the organization of polling stations abroad for the republican constitutional referendum. PCRM representatives stated they disagree with the court decision and insist on the illegality of opening additional polling stations abroad.

The Head of OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Philip Remler, rejected as “baseless” accusations aired on a Moldovan TV program that OSCE is turning a blind eye to the 5 September constitutional referendum in Moldova in order to avoid being forced to admit massive falsification. Ambassador Remler explained that OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) observes referenda only in exceptional cases and it will not send a full-fledged observation mission for this referendum due to financial constraints, but the OSCE Mission, supported by an ODIHR team, will follow developments in Moldova. OSCE encourages people to exercise their electoral rights on September 5, calls on the media reporting on the referendum and the political parties that are campaigning to refrain from demagogic statements and distortions. (According to OSCE Mission to Moldova press release, 17.08.2010)

Association Promo-LEX, member organization of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, launched the first Monitoring Report on the electoral campaign for republican constitutional referendum, covering the period from July 7 to August 13, 2010. According to the Monitoring Report, some aspects regarding the organization and conducting the referendum raise concerns, such as:

• lack of information or incomplete information at some polling stations abroad;
• breach of the deadline for establishing polling stations, which could lead to disputes over the voting results in those polling stations;
• ignorance of the Code of Conduct by some participants in referendum and media outlets;
• the presence of a smaller number of national and international observers;
• late organization of training seminars for electoral officials;
• low participation of the population from localities which are not under the control of Moldova (Transnistrian region); or the risk for the polling stations designed for the citizens from those localities to be overcrowded.

Authors of the Report expose a number of recommendations for the public authorities and other stakeholders of the electoral process, the most important being the following:

• exact observance of the provisions regarding the time schedule for establishing the polling stations;
• to revise the Instruction on the voting procedure by using the mobile ballot box, in order to ensure an appropriate number of ballots;
• to conduct awareness raising campaigns;
• efficient functioning of diplomatic missions;
• the Code of Conduct to be signed by all participants in the referendum and the media involved;
• to increase the number of national and international observers.

The monitoring effort of Association Promo-Lex includes 42 long-term observers who will monitor the electoral process in all electoral constituencies of the Republic of Moldova from August 13 to September 10, 2010. Long-term observers will be assisted by almost 300 short-term observers (assigned based on a representative sample) who will monitor the electoral process on the polling day. (see also www.promolex.md)

On August 17, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova issued a statement whereby invokes serious pressures exercised by the leaders of Alliance for European Integration (AEI) on representatives of local public administration. The statement states that Vladimir Filat, Prime Minister of Moldova, would allow himself to threaten representatives of local public administration who have expressed their “civic position” on September 5 referendum and have asked citizens to boycott it, and afterwards direct indications were given to law enforcement and control bodies to apply necessary measures in relation to these local elected persons and other representatives of local public administration. PCRM qualifies these actions as a severe violation of the principle of separation of powers, an action of trampling the local autonomy, the rights and freedoms of those elected. At the same time, PCRM calls on all citizens, voters, representatives of local public administration to be not influenced by threats of AEI leaders.

Social Democratic Party (PSD) urges OSCE, EU and Council of Europe, diplomatic missions accredited in Moldova, as well as nongovernmental organizations to refrain from sending observers “to September 5 unconstitutional referendum”. The PSD address, quoted by Infotag Agency, states that decision to hold the referendum would be adopted “with numerous violations of constitutional provisions in force”, the worst being that “current Parliament has no legitimacy to take such a decision, since its term of legitimacy ended back on December 7, 2009”. The authors of this address believe that to boycott the referendum and early parliamentary elections would be “the only solution to restore the independence of Moldovan nation and state”.