A group of nongovernmental organizations called on the Parliament’s commission for selecting the members of the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination to make public the reasons for which three candidates who wanted to form part of this Council were rejected. According to the NGOs, the Council was to start work in January, but the selection of three more members is delayed, Info-Prim Neo reports. Nadejda Hriptievschi, the representative of the Legal Resource Center of Moldova, told a news conference that the legislative body created the commission last November. Two of the five members of the Council have been chosen. Doina Ioana Straisteanu and Oxana Gumennaia were confirmed by Parliament. Three more persons took part in the contest. These are: the head of the Resource Center for Human Rights Sergiu Ostaf; chairman of the National Roma Center Nicolae Radita, and jurist Veronica Mihailov-Moraru. According to Nadejda Hriptievschi, the NGOs are dissatisfied with the method of organizing the interview, with the lack of transparency and equidistance, and with the fact that the members of the parliamentary commission didn’t publish the reasons for which the three candidates were rejected. Olga Bitca, consultant of the Recourse Center for Human Rights, said that the interviews were very diverse. Some of the candidates were put unprofessional questions, about prejudices. This refers especially to the Roma candidate Nicolae Radita. Ion Schidu, the representative of the National Participation Council’s working group Justice and Human Rights, said the contest was organized in a nontransparent way. “We are not lobbying for candidates. We only want a functional council that should start work as soon as possible,” he stated. The representatives of the NGOs said that they do not want a puppet Council, but a professional body that will defend the persons who consider themselves victims of discrimination.