League for Defense of Human Rights is concerned because Parliament does not rush to establish election date

The League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADOM), a member of the civic Coalition for free and correct elections (Coalition 2009), launched the first monitoring report on the 2009 parliamentary elections on Tuesday, December 23. The organization is worried that the Parliament doesn’t rush to set the election date, Info-Prim Neo reports. LADOM’s chief Paul Strutzescu stated that positive and negative trends have been recorded in organizing the elections. The positive aspects refer to the existence of an institutional stability, a national consensus on a European tendency of Moldova, obtaining some trade facilities with the EU, promises of deepening the relations with the EU, conditioned by unfolding free and correct elections. The negative aspects are about the small parties being limited to get into the Parliament, the tense relations between central and local public authorities, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemning the Moldovan Government, and aspects concerning the electoral legislation. Besides, there is the Transnistrian problem, and no lasting solution has been found until now. According to analyst Ion Creanga, LADOM is especially worried about the lack of transparency of the Parliament as to naming the date of the parliamentary elections. “No decision draft regarding the election date has been registered as a legislative initiative and included in the order of the day of the parliament, and this fact keeps the whole society in suspense. This fact may delay the plans of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in organizing the electoral activities,” Ion Creanga said. The Parliament has hot evinced an adequate reaction to the ECHR’s decision and to the recommendations of the Venice Commission regarding the legislation which jeopardizes the electoral rights. LADOM is also worried about the fact that some parties invoked restrictions to registering the statutory modifications; many persons have been summoned, arrested, investigated and sanctioned for participating in political meetings. As a result, the Law on checking candidates to public functions by the Security and Information Service was adopted. LADOM ascertains that the central authorities involved in electoral actions, which diminish the local autonomy and democracy. The financial resources from the state budget have been distributed on political criteria, and the CEC has reacted to electoral events organized by different parties partially. LADOM’s report presents findings made after noticing the behavior of the electoral bodies, the public authorities, mass-media and political parties in the pre-electoral period. The information has been collected by 37 long-term supervisors and 6 regional coordinators. The monitoring has been performed from October to December, 2008. The Electoral Code stipulates that the MPs are elected 3 months the latest, after the expiration of the Parliament’s mandate (the mandate expires on March 7, 2009). The date of the parliamentary elections is established through a decision of the parliament at least 60 days before the election day.