Elections were fair, CIS observation mission

The observation mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) said the November 28 early parliamentary elections in Moldova were conducted in accordance with the Moldovan legislation, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on Monday, the mission’s head Vladimir Garcun said necessary conditions had been created for monitoring and holding the elections. Observers of the political parties and national and foreign organizations oversaw voting at all the polling places. The information asked for by the observers from state or political organizations was provided rather quickly, Vladimir Garcun said. Among the violations recorded by the CIS observation mission are the non-observance of the electoral regulations by some of the polling places, the presence of election posters near polling places, the large number of voters written on additional lists and the favoring of the PL and PLDM in the election campaign by the mass media. Observer Alexandr Moscalet said the amendments made to the Election Code less than six months before the elections advantaged the present administration. Despite the identified violations, the CIS mission considers the legislative elections were correct. The short-term observation mission consisted of about 70 persons from Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Executive Committee.