alegeri.md

At 7:00 2,034 polling stations were opened, in the electoral lists being included 2,660,472 citizens with voting rights. Electoral process is monitored by 744 national and 163 international observers, including 134 national observers and 7 international observers in polling stations set up abroad.

Central Electoral Commission took note of the impossibility of continuing voting in polling station no.5 in the village Corjova and decided that local voters may vote in villages Cocieri and Ustia by presenting identity documents attesting their address in Corjova village. CEC filed an appeal with the Prosecutor General Office on “the illegal actions of a group of citizens aimed at preventing the exercise of the voting right by voters of the village Corjova, Dubasari district”. CEC’ decision was taken within extraordinary meeting of the Commission, following the notification submitted by the electoral territorial Council of Dubasari district about blocking the polling station in the village Corjova.

By 12:45 10.38% of the voters registered in electoral lists have voted, i.e. about 275,333 voters. The highest turnout rate was in Telenesti district, 16.9%. On the opposite pole, with 3.10%, is the Gagauz autonomy. In mun. Balti 7,334 people voted, i.e. 6.87%. In Chisinau 44,474 persons voted, i.e. 7.37%.

By 15:45 about 479,658 voters have voted, i.e. 18.02% of the voters registered in electoral lists.

By 18:45 about 639,452 voters voted, i.e. 24.03% of the voters registered in electoral lists.

By 21:45 about 789,407 voters have voted, i.e. 29.67% of the voters registered in electoral lists. The highest turnout rate was kept in Telenesti district, that of 41.1%, and the lowest — in ATU Gagauzia. In mun. Balti 20,323 people voted, i.e. 18.9%, while 188,130 people voted in Chisinau, i.e. 30.68%.

In the morning of September 5, 2010 the website of the Central Electoral Commission www.cec.md was showing erroneous data regarding the number of voters, so that during a while the figure of more than 6 million voters was shown as well as a tiny figure regarding the turnout (about 1%). The CEC website was blocked during two hours until 12:00 (the posted message shows that the page is unavailable). By 14:00 the errors were corrected, and the system of electronic data submission was reactivated. CEC representatives initially claimed technical errors, a possible cyber attack, but ultimately they assessed that the web service wasn’t able to resist due to the large number of visitors, several hundred thousand hits by noon, as well as because of insufficient technical preparation of the staff involved in that process.

PL Chairman, the Speaker of Parliament, Mihai Ghimpu, stated that he votes for political stability and said he was convinced that people understand the need to breakthrough the constitutional deadlock and that they will make use of the power they hold as a sovereign nation. Ghimpu said he will dissolve the parliament and will announce early parliamentary elections, but only after the validation of referendum results and after appointing the date for presidential election. The Speaker also believes that the opposition party, PCRM, will witness the biggest failure on the day of constitutional referendum.

Showing up to the polling station, the PLDM leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Filat, participated in testing the electronic register of voters, but initially he could not be registered because the system was posting errors. Filat said that he votes for the future, for the Republic of Moldova, since it is an important time for the country and people. He stated that in 2008 an action began aimed at providing the citizens with the right to elect their own president and during the referendum this action “will be absolutely fully accomplished”. Filat was confident that referendum will be successful and in mid-November the parliamentary elections in parallel with presidential ones will be held.

AMN Chairman, Serafim Urechean, said that he came with good thoughts and that referendum is “a test and it will provide final settlement for all conflicting discussions in society and especially in political parties”.

PDM leader, Marian Lupu said he was “absolutely sure that Moldovans, our people are smart, clever and will make the choice they feel and know as the best and most appropriate”. Lupu was expecting the end of the constitutional crisis.

The interim President, Mihai Ghimpu, regrets that Moldovans have not understood the importance of the referendum for overcoming the political crisis. At the same time, PL leader believes that part of the fault for the failure has to be shared by the parties of the Alliance for European Integration , which didn’t have a coordinated campaign and shown that “they cannot do politics” and according to the country’s Constitution the interim President has to dissolve the Parliament.

PLDM leader, Vlad Filat, believes that PCRM calls to boycott the constitutional referendum have shown the results, and the weak turnout is due to several factors, including the lack of a coherent message, which was expected from all political stakeholders. Filat advocates the speediest dissolution of parliament and the organization of early elections by winter.

PDM Chairman, Marian Lupu, showed concerned for the reduced turnout in the referendum and said the absenteeism was because voters did not understand what to do in the poll due to aggressive messages of politicians.

Serafim Urechean, AMN leader, argues that the plebiscite results were well below the expectations of AIE members, since they were misled by polls and therefore they will not believe in them in the future.

In a statement aired after the announcement of preliminary results of the constitutional referendum held on September 5, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) “congratulates Moldovan people with a victory over the ruling Alliance”, it states that “People won a victory! PSD won a victory.” PSD says that its boycott call was heard and “it urgently and fully gets involved in the political struggle for unconditional dissolution of the Parliament with the announcement of early parliamentary elections”.

Central Electoral Commission (CEC) was notified by the representative of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) regarding the violation of electoral law by some participants in the referendum (PLDM, PDM and PL) by the possibility of making electoral advertising through billboards on referendum day and the day before. The reasoning part of this claim states that on September 4, 2010, the day before the referendum, in Chisinau and in other districts of the republic the electoral advertising billboards were not removed, a fact that would be inconsistent with the Electoral Code. CEC has considered the complaint as unfounded for the reason that in accordance with Art. 47 para. (8) of the Electoral Code the prohibition over electoral campaigning does not refer to the information already placed on internet and on posters. The Commission considers that there is no sign of equality between electoral poster and advertising billboard, since the electoral advertising billboard serves as support for electoral posters, and the latter represent calls, statements, pictures and other materials used by electoral competitors for the campaigning purposes. Therefore, the PCRM claim was rejected.

On the day of constitutional referendum, September 5, 2010, the Romanian Institute for Assessment and Strategy (IRES) conducted in Chisinau an exit poll ordered by Publika TV. According to the poll data, the voters have stated the following options:

• 90.12% voted for direct election of RM President, i.e. 9.88% would vote against;
• 20.93% responded they have a favored person for the position of RM President; 56.03% will be decided later; 23.03% do not respond;
• the question about the name of favored candidate for the position of RM President, the responses were: 42.2% — Vlad Filat; 24.6% — Marian Lupu 22.0% — Mihai Ghimpu, 1.8% — Zinaida Greceanii; 0.9% — Serafim Urechean, 7.5% — another candidate.

Of those who were attended the poll, 90.34% declared themselves as Moldovan 4.17% — Russians, 1.87% — Ukrainians, 0.37% — Gagauz and other ethnicities — 3.25%. The poll was attended by voters with higher education (53.45%), secondary education (41.20%) and primary (6.35%). 60.3% of these voters are state employees, 11.94% — employees in private sector, 12.42% — pensioners, 7.47% — students, 4.31% — unemployed, and 3.56% — houseworkers. As of age categories, 42.00% of voters age between 18–35 years, 27.80% — between 36–50 years, 23.51% — between 51–65 years, and 6.69% — over 65. The survey methodology: 9,832 interviewed people in exit poll; 133 polling stations; the error margin of ± 1.0% at a confidence level of 95%. (IRES reportRO, ordered by Publika TV)