CoE Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to monitor second ballot in Moldova

A delegation of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CECLRA) will pay a visit to Moldova within June 16-18 in order to monitor the second round of local elections, which will take place on Sunday, June 17. In the day of the elections, the delegation headed by Susan Bolam, Council of Northumberland (United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland), will visit the country and will later on offer preliminary conclusions during a press conference which will take place in Chisinau, on June 18. Other members of the CECLRA delegation include Joseph Borg, vice-president of the Association of local councils in Malta, Joe Conway, municipal councillor in the City Council of Tramore (Ireland), Pauline Dee, member of the North Shropshire Council (United Kingdom), Mihkel Juhkami, president of the Municipal Council of Rakvere (Estonia), Hannu Kemppainen, member of the municipal Council of Kajaani (Finland), Marie-Rose Koro, regional councillor of Basse-Normandie (France), Michael Neureiter, vice-president of the Regional Salzburg Parliament (Austria), Petru Radu Paun-Jura, mayor of Simeria, Hunedoara district (Romania), Paolo Rondelli, municipal councillor (San Marino), Emin Yeritsyan, councillor of the Parakar Community (Armenia). For the current local general elections in Moldova, CECLRA will provide 18 observers. Susan Bolam told a news conference during the first ballot that the CECLRA observers worked out several recommendations during the previous elections in order to suggest methods of improving the electoral campaign and elections. However, no sufficient efforts to improve the situation were made, while the recommendations were not always taken into account by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova.