Coalitia 2009 to monitor transparency of parliamentary elections

A team of Moldovan NGOs created a so-called Coalition 2009 to contribute to the unfolding of the 2009 parliamentary elections transparently, correctly and democratically. The civic coalition was launched Tuesday, November 18, Info-Prim Neo reports. The coalition will monitor different aspects related to the elections of the next spring. “The elections are approaching,” said the president of the Independent Press Association (IPA), Petru Macovei. “That is why it is very important that the civil society continues and maintains its effort to monitor how the Moldovan society approaches the democratic values, how the Government understands to insure the citizens' right to vote, how the media understand to offer space for the participants to express their opinions, how the electoral process proper takes place, if the administrative resources are used,” he said. According to Sorin Mereacre, the director of the Moldovan representation of Eurasia Foundation, Coalitia 2009 will hold public events on a regular basis, news conferences, meetings with the electoral actors, where they will present results of the reports of monitoring the electoral process and its being mirrored by the media. The reports will be posted on the sites of the member NGOs, on the Coalition's site www.alegeliber.md to be launched in a couple of weeks. The reports will be also presented to the Central Electoral Commission and to the Broadcasting Coordinating Council. “We'll also make the public opinion aware in case the entitled institutions neglect the results of the monitoring,” Sorin Mereacre said. Now the Coalition has 7 members: the Association for Participative Democracy “Adept”, the Contact Center, the League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADOM), the Association for promoting juridical clinics, the Youth National Council, the Independent Journalism Center (CIJ) and the Independent Press Association. Coalitia 2009 comes to continue the promotion of free and fair elections started by coalitions 2005 and 2007. They receive technical and financial assistance from international organizations and diplomatic missions.