Igor Dodon meets with Head of OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission Gerald Mitchell

On June 15, the candidate for mayor of Chisinau Igor Dodon had a meeting with the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission Gerald Mitchell, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the candidate’s electoral staff. Igor Dodon said that many of the expectations of the Communist Party (PCRM) as regards the June 5 local elections in Chisinau have been met – the observers identified numerous violations at the polling places in Chisinau and its suburbs. In particular, the illegalities include giving of presents to the voters, issuing of temporary residence visas to students in Chisinau before the elections, campaigning during the elections, illegal extension of the work program of polling places, the refusal to take the mobile ballot box to the voters who cannot present themselves at polling places. Igor Dodon said the Central Election Commission (CEC) behaved strangely. In the morning of June 6, it announced that with 99% of the votes counted, the PCRM’s candidate led with over 52% of the vote. A pause followed and new information from the CEC because available in the second half of the day. The Commission said then that only a part of the votes were counted and Igor Dodon will not have over 50% of the vote. Thus, a second round of voting will take place. Asked by Gerald Mitchell if they suspect that the first round of elections was rigged, Igor Dodon said the PCRM counted the votes in parallel and the final results coincided with those presented by the CEC. The illegalities and frauds were committed on June 5. Igor Dodon reminded that over 1,500 observers on behalf of the PCRM additionally supervised the elections at polling places and prevented violations during the voting process. The candidate also said that an additional 2,500 observers will oversee the voting process at polling places in Chisinau on June 19. Besides, video cameras will be installed at the polling places were most of the violations were identified on June 5. The candidate’s electoral staff will perform two parallel vote counts, plus a separate count in every district of Chisinau and in the suburbs so as to avoid vote rigging. “A very important result of today’s meeting for us is for the international observers to be more vigilant during the second round of the mayoral elections on June 19, especially in the capital city and its suburbs,” said Igor Dodon.