Coalition 2009 finds numerous frauds at Chisinau polling stations

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009 -- has checked the electoral lists of 10 polling stations from Chisinau, randomly selected, and has found multiple irregularities, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a press release issued by Coalition 2009, at all those stations, the number of signatures on the basic electoral list, the additional list and the list of the voters not voting in their precincts did not coincide with the number of voters having cast ballots, shown in the minutes of those stations. For instance, at polling station 234, the difference is 106; at polling station 159 -- 107; at polling station 113 -- 78. Pages from the voters lists are missing at two stations of those 10 verified: there are 6 pages missing at polling station 234, and 4 pages at station 113. The additional list is missing at one of those ten stations, while, according to the minutes, 92 voters were registered on that list. Out of those 10 stations, five do not mention the number of the station on the additional lists, as two stations did not register their number on the list of voters not voting in their precincts. After receiving reports from independent observers, who watched the elections in 1,854 stations, Coalition 2009 found a series of breaches. The most severe are: corrupting voters, electioneering on the vote day, influencing voters, unauthorized people within and out of the polling stations, indirect vote (instead of other people), voting with forbidden documents, stations not putting the stamp “Alegeri 05.04.2009” on the ID card, incidents with the “votat” seal, problems in tabulating the results (208 Chisinau-based stations, 10.5% of the total, miscalculated the results, intimidating voters, etc. “The vote day was marked by numerous violations of the election law, and this fact, in correlation with those 208 cases of miscompiling the electoral minutes in the whole country and the breaches found at the randomly selected stations in Chisinau, could question the freedom and fairness of the April 5 vote,” Coalition 2009 finds. Coalition is a union of Moldovan NGOs pursuing to contribute to secure free, fair, transparent and democratic elections. Coalition 2009 joins over 70 NGOs.