European observes say communist candidates are favoured in elections

The European observers agree with the conclusions brought out by the election monitoring reports, which found that the candidates representing the ruling party are much better positioned than others, said today Marianne Mikko, Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, which is on a fact-finding visit to Moldova. Mikko told a news conference that the members of the delegation are especially concerned about the oversized rate, of about 50%, of the newscast that the Teleradio-Moldova Company uses to cover the activity of the ruling party’s representatives. Mikko further stated that the refusal of the communists to take part in televised electoral debates is absolutely not understandable. If a party behaves like that in a European country, it surely means a political suicide, Mikko said. The European official also referred to the concert organised by PCRM on May 5 to support its candidate for mayor, an event attended by Moldova’s top officials. Mikko termed this interference “a condemnable behaviour”. Jelko Kacin, also a member of the delegation, said that he is not for the first time in Moldova as an observer and all the problems which he recognised previously are still alive, in particular the possibility to vote with Soviet-type passports, irregularities in mass-media, etc. He was also concerned that the communists have a too large number of seats in electoral commissions. Another member of the delegation, Maria Petre, stated that there are still much to do to guarantee fair and free elections in Moldova, in particular referring to the amendment of the electoral legislation and the adoption of a law on political parties’ financing. The European observers concluded that the final decision whether to recognise the elections as free and fair depends on the situation on the very election day.