EPD project: Results of Early Parliamentary Elections in Moldova
On July 29 the Republic of Moldova held early parliamentary elections.
The Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova has gained the largest share of
votes of 44.69%, followed by the Liberal Democratic Party with 16.7%; the
Liberal Party with 14.68% and the Democratic Party with 12.54%. The fifth party
to overcome the threshold of 5 percent is Moldova Noastra Alliance with 7.35%
and these 5 forces will be present in the new Parliament. The voter turnout was
58,8 % which is about one percent more than in the April elections and was
sufficient for the elections to be acknowledged as valid (the minimum voter
turnout in Moldova is one third). The details of the results can be seen at http://www.alegeri.md/en/.
The International Elections Observation Mission of the OSCE has
issued a statement about the elections on July 30th in which it
concludes that early parliamentary elections in Moldova met many international
standards, but the process underscored the need for continued democratic reforms
to restore public trust. Several shortcoming were highlighted by the observers:
the election campaign was affected by subtle intimidation and media bias, the
inaccuracy of the voters lists has once again exposed weaknesses, the misuse of
administrative resources had a negative effect on the equality of campaign
opportunities. "Many OSCE commitments were met, but important challenges remain
if the lack of trust among the country's political parties and voters is to be
overcome so that Moldova's democracy can continue to improve," said Petros
Efthymiou, head of the delegation Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) and special
co-ordinator of the OSCE short-term observers at the press conference. The full
press release and preliminary report can be found here http://www.osce.org/item/39082.html.
The group of Moldovan non-governmental organizations Coalition for
Free and Fair Election 2009, which comprises of about 70 Moldovan NGOs and was
monitoring the campaign and the elections, has issued a statement on the
elections as well calling them not fair and only partially free. Among the main
problems they stated the unfair campaign in which the contestants did not have
equal access to media, they were being intimidated during their campaign events
and also several cases of misuse of administrative resources were recorded by
the Coalition member organizations. Many problems were observed with the
voters' lists: multiple cases of inclusion of unknown persons into the voters'
houses; cases of fraudulent voting instead of other persons; cases of multiple
inclusion of same voters of electoral lists, sometimes even with different data
of their identity cards; the voters in a number of polling stations did not
find themselves on the electoral lists. To see the full declaration please
visit http://www.alegeliber.md/index.php/en/declarations.
The
Swedish Presidency of the European Union issued a statement of behalf of the EU
in which it welcomed the fact that the elections met many international
standards but stressed the need for the Moldovan authorities to address the
concerns raised by the International Election Observation Mission of OSCE, and to
investigate any alleged irregularities in the election process in a timely and
transparent manner. The Presidency called on all Moldovan political parties to
create a constructive and trustful political climate, so that Moldova will be
able to tackle current challenges, such as the economic and financial crisis.
To see the statement please visit http://www.se2009.eu/en/2.543/2.578/2.610/2.640/1.11034.
Javier Solana,
the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy issued a
statement about the elections in Moldova in which he welcomed that elections
met many international standards although some negative aspects persisted. He concludes
that "The Republic of Moldova should regain
political stability. Good governance is of utmost importance, not least due to
the challenges faced by Moldova in the context of the global financial crisis.
The European Union remains ready to assist the country face important political
and economic challenges." The full statement can be found here http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/declarations/109463.pdf
Early elections were called after two failed attempts to elect a
president after previous elections on April 5th, 2009 which were
followed by mass demonstrations. The demonstrators found the elections results
illegitimate, especially the overwhelming victory of the Communist Party of the
Republic of Moldova of 49,48 %. The demonstrations were violently suppressed by
the police leaving hundreds of people wounded and about 700 people were
arrested in the aftermath of the demonstrations. About 260 of them still remain
under criminal prosecution with various accusation of robbery, mass disorder,
or hooliganism. An investigation commission set up to study the incidents of
April 6 and 7 was established by the parliament without the participation of
the opposition parties but this commission did not come up with any report
until now. The April events became a major issue in the campaign of the July
elections and increased the already very polarized environment of the campaign.
Several incidents marked the days before elections. European Network
of Election Monitoring Organizations
(ENEMO), which was invited by the Central Elections Committee to observe
the elections, faced problems with their observers who were detained or not allowed
to enter the country on several occasions. As the outcome the ENEMO canceled
the whole mission to Moldova.
Kristina Prunerova, EPD