Race, full of breaches in districts close to Transnistria, watchdog

The election race has been full of breaches, aggressive and tense in the districts close to the Transnistrian area. The electoral lists were not posted in due time in polling stations, some of them contained names of minors or dead people, votes got intimidated, and administrative resources were used for electoral purposes. These are some of the conclusions from the third monitoring report on the parliamentary elections compiled by the Promo-Lex Association, which was made public on July 27 at a news conference hosted by Info-Prim Neo. According to association president Ion Manole, almost all the electoral competitors committed breaches from July 19 to 26. Worrying is the situation of compiling the voter lists, hate and national intolerance discourses went on being promoted, electoral competitors were treated unfairly by representatives of local public administration, public agency employees got involved in the electoral process, while the electoral rights and freedoms of the voters from the Transnistrian area went on being ignored, although the situation is noticed to be improving, Ion Manole specified. Speaking on the violations certified by Promo-Lex observers in those 7 districts bordering Transnistria, the association's lawyer, Ion Guzun, has stated premier Zinaida Greceanai, a Communist (PCRM) candidate, used her official car (RM G 001) to go to a rally in Anenii Noi, escorted by two security cars. At other rallies, PCRM candidates used to tell local administration representatives that in case as many as 70% of voters in their localities voted for the PCRM, the candidate “will personally contribute” to (re-)build this or that social institution or road or utility. The Communists Party has not commented the accusations as yet. Promo-Lex finds other electoral participants have also committed offenses. For instance, Ion Guzun said, the priest of a village from Stefan Voda had asked believers “to enter the church barefooted, as there are new carpets on the floor, donated by the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM)” and urged them to vote for that electoral competitor. When asked by Info-Prim Neo, a PLDM leader, Alexandru Tanase, has said he is not aware if there was such a situation, but said that “if it is true, such actions are regrettable.” “We condemned the church's involvement when there was the question about the launch of a propaganda message in the PCRM's favor and we do not tolerate such a situation when our party is concerned. Although priests may have certain political views, they must not be expressed in such a way,” Tanase has specified. In a locality from Causeni, social assistants went to the elderly and offered them bags with food from Our Moldova Alliance (AMN), Guzun has said. AMN leader Serafim Urecheanu categorically rejected those findings, naming them “stupidities.” “We do not practice that. The social assistants are not even subordinated to local administrations. It happens the observers make mistakes too,” Urecheanu stated. Promo-Lex recommends the authorities to set up an efficient mechanism of compiling the voter lists, to observe the legal norms regarding the respect of equal opportunities for all the electoral participants, to notify and probe the cases of intimidating contestants and citizens and to develop a mechanism to inform, educate and involve the citizens from the Transnistrian area. Promo-Lex's third report covers the districts of Rezina, Floresti, Dubasari, Anenii Noi, Causeni, Stefan Voda and the Transnistrian area. The information has been collected by over 270 local observers, by direct observation, meetings with interlocutors and official documents. The project is financially supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.