02 / 02 / 2011 / EPD Egypt Desk
After witnessing the biggest demonstration in the history of Egypt in peace time, President Hosni Mubarak, addressing the people of Egypt in a speech broadcasted on the national television on February 1st, decided to stay in power until the end of his mandate. He also considered himself, after 30 years of authoritarian regime, as the best positioned person for conducting a democratic transition until the presidential elections of September 2011. The situation of political and social instability and
Mubarak's unprecedented decision to step down would require from the
international community readdressing some of the main tenants upon which the
relations with Egypt have been built in the last 30 years. Link to article.
30 / 09 / 2009
Vlad Filat, the newly elected Prime Minister of Moldova, visited the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday (29 Sept). He held a meeting with Jerzy Buzek, President of the new European Parliament, and took questions from the Parliament's External Affairs Committee. The EPD has been following events in Moldova closely this year, monitoring elections, reporting back to Brussels decision makers on events taking place in the country and helping to strengthen EU support for Moldova's transition. Read more about the PM's visit.
24 / 09 / 2009
As part of the European Partnership for Democracy's series of Working Papers on democracy assistance, Richard Giragosian and Marine Manucharyan report on the state of political affairs in the Republic of Armenia after the local elections for the city of Yerevan held in May 2009. The report shows that the Armenian society remains polarised after contested parliamentary elections of last year which were followed by demonstrations and violently suppressed leaving at least 10 people dead. The Armenian government handles the political and economic crisis with even more oppression and intimidation of anyone in disagreement. The last part of the report explains the current development in Turkey-Armenia relations which are going through unprecedented period of thawing. Read the report here.
17 / 09 / 2009 / Kristina Prunerova
The Brussels-based
democracy assistance organization European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) has
the pleasure of introducing its report on the current developments in Moldova
entitled “Moldova’s Early Elections: A Transition in Need of Support”. As part
of the EPD series of Working Papers on Democracy Assistance, Kristina Prunerova,
Programme Manager responsible for the Post-soviet region, reports on the state
of political affairs in the Republic of Moldova after the two parliamentary
elections held in 2009. The first elections, held in April, were followed by
demonstrations and a violent crackdown by the authorities, which resulted in a
political stalemate and fresh elections in July. These saw opposition parties
together win more than 50% of the vote and, at the time of writing, were
negotiating to create a coalition government that would drive forward Moldova’s
transition to democracy. In this study Ms. Prunerova analyses the situation
between the regular and early elections in spring this year, outlines the main
challenges in the post-election period and proposes what more the international
community needs to do to assist Moldova at this fragile stage in its democratic
evolution. Read the full report here.
As part of the EPD's close monitoring of the current situation in the Republic of Moldova we produce a weekly round-up of the most important news stories to help keep decision makers and interested parties informed. Click here to catch up on past editions.
02 / 07 / 2009 / Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Levon Zurabian, who is a leading member of former President Levon Ter-Petrossian's Armenian National Congress (HAK),
announced on June 25 that the HAK intends to form a committee that will
continue to investigate the circumstances of the violent clashes in
Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008, Noyan Tapan reported on June 29. President
Serzh Sarkisian last month dissolved the five-person independent group
of experts he established last fall and tasked with assessing the
findings of the ad hoc parliamentary commission set up under pressure
from international human rights bodies to review the events that
culminated in the Yerevan violence.
30 / 04 / 2009
Results of Moldova's parliamentary elections on 5 April 2009 led to
the confrontation between the governing authorities in Moldova,
represented solely by the Communist Party of Moldova, and the
population of the country. The first protests in Moldova, which took
place on 7 April 2009 were, according to the opposition leaders and
civil society, spontaneous and violent, and were not organized or led
by the opposition. By the end of the day on 7 April 2009, 295 people
were arrested, among which one person died allegedly due to severe
beating by the police. On 8 April 2009 the civil society of Moldova
issued a declaration on the 2009 Coalition of NGOs, which was promptly
signed and sent out to civil society organizations in the European
Union and neighbouring countries. The opposition leaders called for
conciliatory forms of protests and the Leader of Liberal Party and
Mayor of Moldova signed the permission to hold peaceful demonstrations
in Chisinau between April 10 through April 29, which were supposed to
keep demonstrators in designed areas and only until 9 pm.
