With 100% of the vote records in the national constituency being processed, the results in the municipality of Chisinau show the electoral bloc ACUM DA PAS polled the largest number of votes – 37.73% of the ballot, which is 119,426 electors in Chisinau voted for this contender.
The Party of Socialists comes second with 34.79% of the vote, which is 110,127 voters. The Democratic Party in Chisinau was supported by 42,318 voters, or 13.37% of the total.
The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, which consists of 39 public organizations with activities in areas related to the electoral law and promotes free and fair elections in accordance with the standards of the ODIHR/OSCE, the Council of Europe and affiliated specialized institutions, described the parliamentary elections held on February 24 as unfair and partially free. The appraisal was made by assessing the degree to which the principles of free and fair elections were respected by all the election runners and based on the findings concerning the pre-electoral and electoral periods and the election day. In a news conference at IPN, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT Igor Boțan said the amendments to the legal framework were made in a harry and non-transparently, ignoring the legal provisions regarding the transparency of the decision-making process. This enabled to use administrative resources and, respectively, influenced the election outcome. The pre-electoral and electoral periods and the election day were marked by voter corruption activities, conducted also through the agency of charitable foundations affiliated to parties. These included offering of illegal presents, the activity of social stores and transportation of voters to polling places in an organized way.
The parliamentary elections of February 24 were compliant with the Constitution and the Election Code of the Republic of Moldova. They were competitive and free. The mission’s coordinator Viktor Guminsky said that on the election day, the mission’s observers didn’t report serious violations that would influence the election outcome. The vote count was law-abiding. Viktor Guminsky said that according to the CEC, the national legislation does not treat this as a violation. The CEC requested the Police to investigate all the circumstances.
The parliamentary elections held in the Republic of Moldova on February 24 were conducted fairly and no major violations that can influence the election outcome were recorded. Even if technical faults existed, these can be removed until the next elections, said representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (PABSEC) who oversaw the elections.
No major violations were seen at the February 24 parliamentary elections, the head of the election observation mission of Promo-LEX Association Pavel Postica stated in a news conference.
According to Pavel Postica, the observes of Promo-LEX in the course of the election day reported 127 faults in the voter rolls and 110 cases of photographing of ballots. There were identified 91 cases of organized transportation of voters and 83 cases of transportation in a group.
In a news conference at IPN, where there were presented the conclusions of the election observation missions, mission member Petar Kanev said now the Republic of Moldova is to take important decisions. “Many years ago, Bulgaria was in a similar situation. We overcame a very difficult period. You will need wise politicians and a wise executive power. That’s why we, as observers, would like to know that reforms will be done during the next few years and the first year of the new Government. Usually, the first year is the year when reforms can be done. If these are not done in the period, it is afterward difficult and late,” stated Petar Kanev.
The consultative referendum that was held simultaneously with the parliamentary elections on February 24 can be declared valid as it involved over one third of those put on the voter rolls. According to preliminary reports, over 730,000 voters answered “yes” the question “Are you for reducing the number of MPs from 101 to 61?”. More than 260,000 people voted “against”.
Also, over 790,000 people answered “yes” the question “Are you for recalling the MPs who do not appropriately fulfil their duties? “. More than 200,000 people voted “against”.
The Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Andrei Năstase said that analyzing the final election outcome with maximum objectivity and assessing the huge impact of the rigging operation on the results, the electoral bloc ACUM Platform DA and PAS can say that it won the elections of February 24, 2019. Andrei Năstase also said that the electoral bloc ACUM won the parliamentary elections and the beneficiaries of the electoral fraud witnessed yesterday believe they will escape this time as well. But the parliamentary election rigging will be the subject of a detailed and transparent investigation into the premediated events and facts and those to blame will be held accountable. “From this moment, according to the decision of the free, honest, just and courageous people of the Republic of Moldova, we, those from ACUM, received a firm mandate to do what needs to be done. We must do justice and will do it! We will start with the file of yesterday’s elections,” stated Andrei Năstase.
The Party of Socialists will dispute the election results in six single-member constituencies at the Central Election Commission and in court. In a news conference, the party’s president Zinaida Grechanyi said the elections were difficult and there were witnessed many violations and cases of broad use of administrative resources. According to Maxim Lebedinski, the PSRM will challenge the election outcome in six single-member constituencies, two of which are in Chisinau, namely constituencies No. 26 Centru, Buiucani, No. 25 Centru, Botanica, No.42 Cantemir, Cahul, No.40 Basarabeasca and No. 47 and 48 that were intended for Transnistrian voters. In these constituencies, the Socialists documented a number of cases of voter corruption and bringing of voters to polling stations in an organized way.
President Igor Dodon said that together with the validation of the parliamentary election results, he is ready to convoke the first sitting of the legislative body. He noted he is ready to invite the party leaders to discussions and later to propose a powerful candidate for the premiership. If a consensus is not reached, Igor Dodon considers early legislative elections should be initiated as soon as possible, probably together with the local elections.
The leader of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc said the PDM is ready to open talks with parties and independent candidates who will enter Parliament so as to offer the citizens a parliamentary majority and a functional government. The president of the PDM noted their electoral score is very good and matches the done work. It is a result by which the people “invest” in democracy with a lot of confidence. The cumulative results in the national constituency and in single-member constituencies show the PDM will have 31 seats of MP.
Moldovan tennis player Radu Albot won the ATP 250 tournament “Delray Beach Open” that was held in Florida. Owing to his triumph in Florida, Radu Albot climbed to the 52nd spot in the world rankings.
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