Poll-watchers suspicious of “first-in-ballots” communist candidates

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – 2007 doubts the legality of the fact that the communist candidates head the electoral lists in the country’s raions in a 30% proportion. Director of the League for the Protection of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) Paul Strutzescu told a roundtable on Friday, May 18, that in 11 out of 30 raions, the first candidates included in the ballot papers will be the communist candidates running for councillors. “Given that the procedure for arranging candidates in the ballots is by casting lots, this fact shows that either the communist candidates had the devil’s luck or the fact that certain district election commissions have something to do with this result”. In light of the fact that a great part of the voters are unconsciously voting for the no.1 candidate, the fact that the communist candidates are in the front position in the lists is an obvious advantage for the Party of the Communists and a disadvantage for the rest of the candidates, the cited source said. Strutzescu mentioned that this situation can not be disputed by the Coalition, which aims at analysing the data and informing the public opinion and the Central Election Commission (CEC). “It is the concern of political parties to lodge complaints with CEC or to start legal proceedings in case they find violations in the course of the electoral process”, the cited source added. Also, Paul Strutzescu mentioned that the last two weeks, LADOM found that the holidays in May were used in electoral purposes by the majority of the electoral competitors, especially by the communists. The distribution of humanitarian aid to II World War veterans also was politically motivated. “Authorities continue to put pressure on the competitors; many persons are threatened they will lose their jobs if they do not leave the race or run on behalf of the communist party”, Strutzescu says. According to the members of the coalition, the monitoring process of the election campaign revealed that a number of TV stations broadcast in the electoral campaign news and opinions which directly or indirectly favour the ruling party. Most of local public newspapers and the former central public newspapers also favour PCRM. CEC Secretary Iurie Ciocan mentioned that the institution he represents informed several times the law enforcement bodies about the fact that electoral posters were displayed in unauthorised places, especially the ones promoting the communist candidate. Ciocan mentioned that besides the possibility of warning the candidates, it has no other legal levers to punish or eliminate from elections those who break the laws. At the same time, Ciocan considers that it is incorrect that the moderator of a TV show prohibited the candidates during the electoral debates to campaign. According to him, the Electoral Code allows the candidates to campaign during the debates and even to accuse the other candidates, regardless of the fact if he has proofs or not. If the statements are considered defamatory, the accused ones can initiate legal proceedings. The monitoring project is implemented in partnership with the Institute of Marketing and Surveys IMAS-INC Chisinau. The monitoring period is April 10 – June17. The results are made public by means of fortnightly reports in the first monitoring month and weekly reports in the following months. The project is financed by Eurasia Foundation, from the funds of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the OSCE Mission to Moldova.