Communists are most numerous on list of candidates with integrity problems

The Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament (CICP) has compiled a list of 47 candidates 'with integrity problems', out of which 30 are on the Communists' (PCRM) list for the parliament. “The moral integrity of these people raises certain question marks. It's not a matter of being or not being compromised,” executive of the Independent Press Association (IPA) Petru Macovei told a news conference on Monday, hosted by Info-Prim Neo. 40 journalists have searched the lists of the electoral contestants, then the Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament offered a team of lawyers to check the results of the investigations, has coordinated them with the political parties having signed cooperation agreements with it and has made them public (www.moldovacurata.md). The PCRM did not want to sign a contract with the CICP, as other six parties did. PCRM leader Vladimir Voronin benefited from a whole page in the brochure titled “Know Your Candidate.” Among other things, Voronin is accused of having called the Moldovan tricolor “a fascist flag” in 2000. Through his statements as a President, he determined Moldova's being condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Ilascu and others against Moldova and Russia case, as the tax-payers had to pay damages of several hundred thousand euros. President Voronin has been publicly accused of pressure over the judiciary and the law-enforcement bodies, the media wrote he has subordinated a series of media to himself, wrote about being involved in signing no-tender contracts, he has massively used the administrative resources in the electoral campaigns from 2005, 2007 and 2009. The media wrote much about his son Oleg managing thriving businesses during his father's mandate. The leader of the People's Christian Democratic Party (PPCD), Iurie Rosca, is the second candidate whom the 16-page brochure dedicates more space than to other candidates. The deputy speaker of the Parliament is accused of commercial activities contrary to the Constitutional provisions, one of his companies having not paid taxes for years, he has repeatedly been probed for hooliganism and violence. The CICP has no candidate from the Liberal Party, instead it unveils acts of doubtful conduct of six candidates on the list of the Centrist Union, of two candidates from the Democratic Party, of four from the PPCD. There is also suspicion attached to activities involving the candidates Alexandru Oleinic, Vasile Pantea and Ion Gutu from the Moldova Noastra Alliance and Vladimir Hotineanu from the Liberal Democratic Party. The brochure has been printed out in 200,000 copies to be distributed by those 7 NGOs which joined the Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament.