Constitutional referendum wasn't fully free and fair, experts

The September 5 constitutional plebiscite wasn't fully free and fair, consider experts of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, who monitored the referendum. In a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo on Monday, representatives of the Coalition said they identified a number of violations of the electoral legislation during the referendum campaign and on the day of the ballot question. “The voters have been abusively influenced and intimidated. There was non-allowed electoral publicity and propaganda. Representatives of the local public authorities urged boycotting the referendum even if their positions do not allow them to,” said the Coalition's secretary Nicolae Panfil. The experts said the electoral rolls were inaccurate. “The Coalition is deeply concerned about the fact that the total number of voters on the lists and the method by which the Central Election Commission calculated the voter turnout were not made public on the day of the referendum,” said Nicolae Panfil. The Coalition considers that the CEC allowed derogations from the electoral legislation when it registered political organizations that intended to boycott the referendum as campaign participants. “The parties, even if they have many methods of conveying their messages, failed in their attempts to adequately inform the people,” said Nicolae Panfil. Another irregularity identified by the Collation is that the authorities did not guarantee Transnistrians' voting rights as there were held no electoral debates and meetings with the voters in the eastern region. Promo-Lex expert Corneliu Cirimpei said the turnout of the Transnistrian voters in the plebiscite was by over 80% lower. The Moldovan authorities did not inform them at what polling places they could vote. The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections called upon the authorities, the political class, the mass media and civil society to continue making effort to ensure free and fair elections so that voting in the early legislative elections this autumn be improved.