Political Party sues Govt. at ECHR

The Liberal Democratic Party from Moldova (PLDM) has sued the Government at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), claiming the authorities violate the party's right to free elections in the wake of the 2009 race. Leaders of the party made such statements at a news conference on Tuesday, Info-Prim Neo reports. PLDM's leader Vlad Filat says the application filed to the ECHR is part of a series of actions undertaken by the party after it launched the campaign “Moldova without Voronin, Moldova without Communists”. Filat says the action envisages the head of the state, Vladimir Voronin, first, who is accused of violating human rights. Filat says the application is based on the statement made by Vladimir Voronin on 25 July 2007 according to which, the districts and the localities, which did not vote with the Communists in the local elections, would be restricted in getting financial means. The second document contains PLDM's calculations according to which Voronin's statement has materialized. He compares the local budgets before the 2007 local elections and says there is an obvious difference in terms of allocating money after the poll. “The discriminatory financing from the state budget of the districts conducted by opposition parties represents pressure on the part of the ruling party on the non-Communist voters and it presses them to vote for the Communists despite their political options,” Filat stated. “Voronin's and the Government's actions defy the citizens' political rights, are a severe violation of the Constitution and are incompatible with the concept of free elections, guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights,” the parliamentarian said. He says they lodged the final motivation for the ECHR to consider the issue urgently. “It's important to have a precedent, in order not to allow to approach the citizens depending on their political affiliation,” says the PLDM leader. He showed himself certain that “after the Communism era, more law suits of civil, penal or moral character will be filed against the present Government.” “General Voronin is the only president hating his own people and he is ready to let half of the population to starve only to stay in power with his clan,” a PLDM deputy president, Alexandru Tanase, said. Referring to PLDM's chances in the 2009 race, Vlad Filat says the party pursues to reach to rule, because the role of an opposition parliamentarian is ungrateful. The party is still working on its electoral offer,and they expect the other opposition parties to do the same and to present the people to assume responsibility for ruling. “The voters have the right to know the people to come to rule,” Vlad Filat added. The PLDM leader has announced the known lawyer Vitalie Nagacevschi has joined the party. He had earlier been a member of PSL and PPCD,on whose list he was the 13th during the last parliamentary poll.