Elections were free and partly fair, Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections

The November 28 early legislative elections were free and partly fair, said the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The Coalition's secretary Nicolae Panfil told a news conference on Tuesday that the legislative framework and general climate of the election campaign have significantly improved compared with the parliamentary elections of 2009. Experts of the Coalition said no serious attempts to hinder the election runners from presenting their platforms have been observed in the campaign. The media outlets appropriately covered the electoral process. Most of them offered possibilities of dialogue to all all the election contenders. Only the TV channel NIT, the papers Moldova Suverana and Nezavisimaya Moldova and the portal Omega promoted the virulent and xenophobic messages of some of the runners. In its report, the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections points to a number of irregularities, including cases of use of administrative resources, cases of intimidation of the voters and of placement of election posters in unauthorized places. The Collation expressed its concern about the votes cast on A4 sheets and about the central electoral authority's inability to make sure than all the Moldovans abroad are able to vote. The report also says that the women continue to be underrepresented in the lists of candidates and this is against the principle of equality of chances laid down in the Moldovan legislation. The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections includes Promo-Lex Association, the Association of Independent Press, the National Youth Council of Moldova, the Independent Journalism Center and other NGOs that monitored the election campaign.