AMN accuses PCRM of preparing for rigging July 29 polls

The Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) says the Communists Party (PCRM) is up to fixing the early parliamentary elections on July 29. “The falsification is already in progress as most polling stations across the country haven't yet published the voter rolls, despite a deadline set by the Central Election Commission for July 14”, the AMN leader, Serafim Urecheanu told a news conference on Monday. “These requirements are ignored especially by the polling stations' chairmen who are PCRM representatives”, stated Urecheanu, citing evidence collected by AMN representatives on the ground. At the same time, Urecheanu said he possessed new evidence of electoral frauds on April 5. According to him, many signatures of the chairmen of electoral councils applied on the recordings of the April 5 elections do not match the the same persons' signatures applied on April 15, when ballots were recounted on the Communists' initiative. “This difference is largely seen in the electoral circumscriptions whose chairmen are Communist representatives”, said Urecheanu, adding that most of these persons will occupy these posts in the July 29 elections, too. “That is why we doubt the authenticity of the upcoming elections”, he explained. The AMN leader asked the General Prosecutor's Office to examine the signatures affixed to the recordings of April 5 and 15. Otherwise, the AMN said it would sue the Office for attempting to conceal the fraud. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the Communist representative to the CEC, Serghei Sarbu said the obligation to publish the voter lists rests with the electoral bureaus of the polling places, each consisting of 5 PCRM members, 3 representatives of the local mayor's office, and 3 representatives from the three other parliamentary parties. “There are cases of delay, but that's because many bureaus haven't managed to assemble yet, and the organizational measures impede them to publish those lists”, said Sarbu. Concerning the allegation of falsification of signatures, Sarbu said there were 'only a few cases', which the relevant bodies have been handling. Yet he added it wasn't falsification, but a matter of 'incongruity of requirements'.