Four projects to monitor local elections

On Tuesday, April 24, the Eurasia Foundation launched four projects to monitor local general elections scheduled for June 3, within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2007. The projects will be administered by six nongovernmental organisations of Moldova. Nearly 1500 members of District Election Committees (DECs) will be trained as part of one of these projects, conducted by ADEPT Association. Under another project, the League for Defence of Human Rights in Moldova (LADOM) will perform comprehensive monitoring, observation and analysis of the pre- and election campaign, Election-day activities, and the post-election period. LADOM will employ over two thousand observers and will conduct parallel counting of votes in the main towns of the country. Association of Independent Press (AIP) in partnership with the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) will carry out comprehensive monitoring of local and national TV, radio stations and newspapers and their conduct in the election campaign. Under the fourth project, the National Youth Council of Moldova (NYCM) together with the Association for Moldovan Legal Clinics (AMLC) will foster active participation among young people in Moldova during the 2007 general local elections. The grantee will conduct a nationwide civic education campaign including a hotline, workshops, trainings, and informational materials geared toward young voters. The projects are financed by Eurasia Foundation, with resources from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and USAID.