Coalition 2009: Unfair and partially free elections. Electoral process tainted before elections

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009 considers that the April 5 parliamentary elections were not fair and only partially free given the situation of the Transnistrian voters. Such a position was expressed by the over 70 nongovernmental organizations that form part of the Coalition, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Coalition 2009, the election campaign was marked by multiple violations of the electoral legislation: use of public resources (at least 41 cases proved) and pressure and influence on the election runners (at least 21 cases proved) and voters (minimum 33 cases proved). The public stations with national coverage Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova favored the ruling party in the news programs that were transformed into instruments for manipulation and propaganda in favor of the PCRM and against the Opposition parties. Similar violations were committed by the private stations NIT, N4, EU TV and Antena C. Therefore, the electoral contenders had limited possibilities of presenting their platforms and expressing their viewpoints on different problems. “So, we can say that there was no political pluralism during the election campaign,” Coalition 2009 says in its final report. Coalition 2009 also said that the election campaign was not stopped when it should. On April 4, 2009, EUTV, N4, NIT, PRO TV, and TV 7 rebroadcast programs biasing in favor or against election runners. Also, the state news agency Moldpres favored the PCRM on the election day, broadcasting news about how the top three candidates on the PCRM list Vladimir Voronin, Marian Lupu and Zinaida Greceanai voted, but reported nothing about the vote of other election contenders. According to the Border Guard Service, 627,959 Moldovans are constantly abroad. Given that these citizens make up at least 20% of the total voters, Coalition 2009 considers that the 33 polling stations opened abroad could not provide optimum voting condition for them. The Coalition said that in the final report on the monitoring of the 2005 legislative elections, the nongovernmental organizations recommended the authorities to take the necessary measures to ensure the right to vote of the Moldovans that are abroad in the future electrons. The irregularities in Moldova’s Transnistrian region were much more serious. The authorities did not create minimum voting conditions for about 10% of the Moldovan voters living in the region. There were carried out no electoral activities such as debates and meetings with the voters. The Moldovan authorities did not inform the voters in the region about the voting procedure and where they should vote. Also, the number of polling places set up for Transnistrian voters was much lower than necessary. Coalition 2009 draws attention to the fact that the irregularities committed in the April 5 elections are similar to those mentioned in the 2005 reports of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, but during the four years the authorities did not take steps to improve the situation. Coalition 2009 is a voluntary union of Moldovan NGOs that aim to contribute to free, fair, transparent and democratic elections for the Parliament. It continues the activities promoting free and fair elections initiated by Coalition 2005 and Coalition 2007 and has over 70 NGO members.