SLP could request the postponement of local elections

The Social Liberal Party (SLP) might request that the local general elections be rescheduled and the election campaign be re-launched, if in the next 2 weeks the campaign will continue to experience illegal practices, SLP leader Oleg Serebrian told a news conference at Info-Prim Neo. Serebrian believes that the representatives of other parties will join the request, being supported by international observers. It is possible that ECHR will also question the way the campaign is organised, especially in what concerns the case of the “European Action” Movement, which was not allowed to participate in the electoral campaign. The leader of SLP said that for one month already, the campaign has been seriously compromised and vitiated, and the way it has been organised is absolutely intolerable. Serebrian said he knows for sure that President Voronin received signals from the representatives of several important diplomatic missions in Chisinau, which might not recognise the results of the elections as valid. Several political parties are already considering actions to be undertaken in June, if such a situation occurs. Among the violations, the SLP leader mentioned the behaviour of the District Election Councils in Chisinau which, according to the cited source, are changing the rules on a daily basis. According to Serebrian, their members set forth different reasons, such as the lack of documents and proxies etc, in order to delay the registration of candidates. In the settlements where the communist candidates are not the first on the lists, different tricks are used to eliminate from the campaign those who are registered before them. Also, Serebrian claimed massive pressures on the part of the law enforcement bodies and dismissal of party members, and the fact that certain printing offices do not want to accept the orders of the opposition parties etc. “Never has Moldova witnessed such a campaign since the country’s independence”, the SLP leader concluded. Chairman of SLP National Staff Igor Klipii supported the idea that the members of the District Election Council are abusively interpreting the Electoral Code in order to harass and discourage the electoral candidates. Local general elections will take place on June 3, 2007.