The Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Moldova Oleg Vasnetsov was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration where he was handed over a note of protest. In a press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said that in spite of the international law norms and provisions, the Russian authorities continue to delay granting access to the Moldovan delegation to the Moldovan citizens, refuse to communicate information about their whereabouts and state of health. The Republic of Moldova describes such an attitude as deliberate provocation that seriously affects the bilateral relations.
Activist Fiodor Ghelici, who presents himself as the ambassador of the International Organization for Educational Development (IOED) of India, said he and the organization he represents took part in the process of obtaining the release of the Moldovan pilots who were held hostage in Afghanistan and whose release was announced two days ago by President Igor Dodon.
Alexandr Kalinin, the leader of the Party of Regions of Moldova, said he will soon inform the Prosecutor General’s Office about the US$20 million that Igor Dodon bought from Moscow, as he reported earlier. Alexandr Kalinin asserted that US$ 2 million of this sum was paid to the Taliban for setting free the two Moldovan pilots that were held hostage in Afghanistan.
The leader of the Party of Regions of Moldova Alexandru Kalinin said the Party of Socialists that declares itself pro-Russian actually promotes persons who also have Romanian nationality as candidates for MP and not only. According to Kalinin, President Igor Dodon, who is the informal leader of the Socialists, pledged to table a legislative initiative that would ban persons who hold the nationality of other states from holding public posts, but he didn’t do it and allowed persons with Romanian nationality to be put on the lists of the Party of Socialists.
“The Party of Regions of Moldova is the only authentic pro-Russian party that keeps Moldova’s statehood,” said the party’s leader Alexandr Kalinin. In a news conference at IPN, Alexandr Kalinin noted their party will settle the Transnistrian conflict by federalizing Moldova and will declare Russian the second official language.
Elections in plain words from IPN: ballots. The ballot for the elections in the national constituency are smoky gray in color, while those for the uninominal constituencies are violet. For the plebiscite, the ballots with the question “Do you want the number of MPs to be reduced from 101 to 61?” are pale yellow, while those with the question “Do you want the MPs to be recalled if these do not fulfil their duties?” are beige. If the voter cannot fill out the ballot himself, this can seek help from a reliable person, but this should not be from among members of the electoral office of the polling place, representatives of electoral contenders and persons authorized to attend the electoral operations. If the voter marked the ballot incorrectly, this can ask the electoral office of the polling place to annul this ballot and to issue him/her immediately with a new ballot, only once.
In a news conference at IPN, director of the Independent Journalism Center Nadin Gogu said the monitoring of February 1-8 that covered 12 TV channels showed the Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc was most often presented on TV, principally in positive and neutral contexts. This is followed by the co-presidents of the bloc ACUM, Andrei Năstase and Maia Sandu, who were presented mainly in a neutral or a negative light.
The online media outlets that covered the election campaign in a balanced way are the portals agora.md, moldova.org, newsmaker.md, unimedia.info and zdg.md. The portals aif.md, kp.md, gagauzinfo.md and noi.md were biased and favored the Party of Socialists, while timpul.md favored the Democratic Party and the Shor Party and presented the bloc ACUM in a negative light. The newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau covered the activities of ACUM in a positive way, while those of the Democratic Party, the Party of Socialists and the Shor Party mainly in a negative light.
The candidate of the electoral bloc ACUM in uninominal constituency No. 17 Nisporeni, Strășeni, Ion Terguță submitted an application to the Government in the name of the inhabitants of Călinești village of Nisporeni district, asking to allocate 1.7 million lei. Ion Terguţă said the money is needed for building public lighting in the village and for repairing the local kindergarten and school. In a press briefing given in front of the Government Building, the ACUM candidate said that recently, representatives of the Democratic Party (PDM) promised, in the name of the party’s leader Vlad Plahotniuc, that this sum of money will be allocated from the state budget for performing the same works in another village of Nisporeni district. “We make this approach in the name of citizens who pay taxes. As this is public money, we consider it is fair and rational to ensure all the country’s people benefit from state funds,” noted Ion Terguţă.
Ion Leashchenko, who runs for MP on the list of the Union Democracy at Home, said the PDM uses administrative resources because the representatives of this party fear the halls will be empty if they do not force the people to take part. In Ungheni, employees of a number of state institutions were forced to attend electoral meetings. At the Chisinau Lyceums “Onisifor Ghibu” and “Petru Rareș”, several days ago the parents were invited to take part in a meeting of the parents committee, but this was actually an electoral meeting with a Democratic candidate in that constituency.
A similar case happened recently in Răzeni village of Ialoveni district. As teachers said, on February 12 students left home at 11:30am even if the classes were to last by close to 3pm. The images distributed by a TV channel showed the teachers went to the electoral meeting with their heads down and when coming out of the building refused to say in what meting they took part.
Details on IPN!