Political analyst of the Jamestown Foundation and Eurasia Daily Monitor Vladimir Socor fears the presidential elections in Moldova could be seriously affected by the behavior of the Democratic Party, which he considers intends to rig the elections. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, the analyst said the situation favors the first deputy chairman of the PDM Vladimir Plahotniuc and his interests and there are suspicions that the elections will be rigged, IPN reports.
“There are two ways of rigging the elections – falsification of the number of votes and conducting of a biased election campaign for particular candidates and of a damaging campaign for other candidates. We already witness a very biased election campaign because Mister Plahotniuc and his TV channels throw mud at the candidates that he considers are a threat to him. On the other hand, we see that more ballots than the total number of voters were distributed. There are reasons for concern,” stated Vladimir Socor.
According to the analyst, a lot has been done to rig the elections so far. “There is a dozen of unreal candidates most of whom were evidently placed by the current power to steal votes from the candidates of whom the current power is afraid,” he said.
Asked what he thinks about the Party of Communists’ call not to vote in elections, Vladimir Socor said the party’s leader Vladimir Voronin realizes that his political career ended and he cannot run for President as he would score a result that would not do him an honor. “I think the second motivation to boycott the elections is the wish to limit the votes that Igor Dodon can gain,” stated the analyst.
Asked if the geopolitical factor can be excluded from the presidential race, Vladimir Socor said this can be mainly done as he sees now no threat on the part of Russia. “Russia does not aim to bring Igor Dodon to power. Its priority is now to get rid of the economic sanctions. It has to manage the situation in Ukraine and that in Syria. It would be absurd to image that Russia, in the current situation, could do something to seize power in the Republic of Moldova by a particular party. Russia simply does not have resources for something like this. If Mister Dodon becomes President, Russia will no way be able to support the Republic of Moldova at economic level. Russia can no longer support Transnistria at least,” he stated.
Vladimir Socor considers life cannot be improved as swiftly as the electoral competitors promise. What an anti-oligarchic President can do for the people’s interests is to consolidate the institutions and to eliminate corruption in the state and Maia Sandu is the ideal candidate who can do this, while Igor Dodon didn’t show that he can do something like this.
