Opposition party fears elimination from electoral race

The Social-Liberal Party accuses authorities of planning to eliminate the party from this year’s electoral race. The Party’s leader Oleg Serebrian told a news conference, held on Friday, April 13, that the Ministry of Justice claims that Serebrian is no longer the president of the party as his mandate expired on July 10, 2005. According to the Ministry of Justice (MJ), at the PSL Congress held on that date, there were made amendments to the party’s Statute, which later were not accepted by MJ. PSL rejects these allegations, as the PSL Congress did not modified the entire Statute, but amended only several articles, and the method to elect the president is not ranging among them. Consequently the amended articles can be considered void, but not those of the Statute adopted at the Congress dated May 9, 2001, and approved at the MJ, the party’s leader affirms. According to Serebrian, PSL learnt only on April 12 about the fact that MJ had warned in late March the Central Election Commission over the so-called irregularities a number of political parties have. Serebrian qualified the MJ’s action as an attempt to eliminate from the electoral race several parties, including PSL, though until now the party’s president had exercised his duties, his signature is valid in the bank accounts, the party participated in 2005 elections, becoming a parliamentary faction. According to PSL leader, the social-political movement “Ravnopravie” experiences the same situation. As MJ claims, the mandate of its head Valeri Climenco expired in 2001, although it participated in a number of electoral campaigns. At the same time, according to MJ, Eduard Musuc is not the lawful president of PSDM. As Serebrian states, MJ intends to exclude from the electoral race, following certain political orders, the parties that enjoy popularity and seeks to register a number of obedient small parties to simulate democracy, protecting at the same time the Communist Party, which is in a sharp decline. PSL informed Liberal International and international organisations about the abuses committed by the government. If the situation does not change, PSL is determined to sue MJ, ready to make it to the Strasbourg Court.