Candidate Tudor Pantiru complains of intimidations on part of Moldovan police in running campaign for Romanian Parliament

Tudor Pantiru, one of the candidates to a seat in the Romanian Parliament to be voted by Romanian citizens from Moldova, accuses the Chisinau authorities of persecutions in his electoral campaign. “The whole campaign has been marked by intimidations, representatives of the Moldovan special services attended electoral rallies and actions. In the districts where meetings with voters were planned, the organizers were intimidated and even threatened. Many citizens entitled to vote are insistently advised not to go to vote. Many of my supporters were warned to stay away and not to get involved in my electoral campaign,” Tudor Pantiru stated. He gave a news conference hosted by Info-Prim Neo on Thursday, and accompanied by three volunteers of his who had been detained a day before by the Chisinau police for trying to post an electoral poster at the South Bus Station. Teodor Papuc, Eugen Enache and Igor Cupet told how they were searched by police for three hours, asking them how they identify the citizens holding Romanian citizenship, who finances them, whether they stand for Moldova joining Romania. Tudor Pantiru added the unification with Romania is not his competence as a candidate, but it's a topic related to the will of all the population. The candidate expresses his concern many voters will be hampered by the Moldovan authorities to participate in the poll. He says fewer than planned supporters came to his rallies, as many invoked they may be fired “since they knew they would be filmed and eavesdropped.” “The game rule have been breeched in this campaign,” said lawyer Alexandru Tanase, the first deputy president of the Liberal Democratic Party from Moldova, which supports the candidate put up by the Social-Democratic Party from Romania, Tudor Pantiru, in this campaign to end on November 30. Referring to the candidate running for the Democrat Liberal Party (PD-L) from Romania, Eugen Tomac, Tanase has asked: “How shall he explain the massive support on behalf of the Communist media? The question is about Moldova 1 in newscasts. The question is about Moldova Suverana newspaper through frequent articles and editorials? How shall we understand that the PD-L candidate has not explained what is his function in the Romanian presidency? Why the Romanian presidency has never specified he is not a presidential advisor, as they say in this campaign?” Tanase has criticized what he called “an image transfer operated by the President of all Romanians in favor of a single candidate: Eugen Tomac.” Alexandru Tanase has hinted the Moldovan authorities do not hamper the supporter of the PD-L candidate to spread electoral materials and criticized the support offered by the Liberal Party (PL) from Moldova to Eugen Tomac, especially by Chisinau mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca, the PL deputy president. The Moldovan who also hold Romanian citizenship, for the first time, will be able to elect candidate of theirs in the Bucharest Parliament. Observers note that Russia also opens polling stations in Moldova during electoral periods, but there were no signs of the Moldovan authorities having hampered Russian politicians to run their campaigns in Moldova.