Influences on voters compromise correctness of July 29 elections, Promo-LEX

The electoral registers are not accurate and have not been posted on time, the voters in the Transnistrian region remain outside the electoral process, while the public posts and resources continue to be used for electoral purposes, say observers of Promo-LEX Association. The findings are contained in the second report on the monitoring of the July 29 parliamentary elections carried out between July 11 and 20. Promo-LEX, which usually monitors Moldova’s Transnistrian region, during the current electoral campaign also supervises the electoral process in a number of districts located on the right bank of the Nistru, where polling places are traditionally set up for Transnistrian voters, namely Floresti, Rezina, Dubasari, Anenii Noi, Causeni, and Stefan Voda, Info-Prim Neo reports. “As in the previous report of July 14, Promo-LEX established that the electoral contenders do not observe or partially observe the legislation,” the Association’s president Ion Manole told a news conference on July 21. “However, the electoral bodies took into account some of our recommendations and opened two more poling places for Transnistrian voters - in Sanatauca and Cocieri villages.” Besides ordinary violations, the Association saw cases when the monitoring process was hindered. At the end of a public meeting of representatives of the Communists Party with voters in Pohrebea village of Dubasari district on July 17, the Promo-LEX monitor Victor Pantaru was threatened by the former deputy minister of economy and current director of Moldova-Vin Agency Tudor Copaci. “After I filmed sequences of the meeting, Tudor Copaci came to me and told me: if the images appear in the press I will break your neck,” said Victor Pantaru. Other cases identified by the monitors concern the abusive influence and intimidation of the voters by some of the electoral contenders. “On July 17, the PCRM candidate Vasile Sova paid a visit to Ustia village of Dubasari district. The people were invited to the meeting by the message “All should come obligatorily”,” said Ion Guzun, jurist at Promo-LEX. The monitors also said that representatives of the ruling party banned the people from watching the films screened by the Liberal Party (PL) and the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM). The pensioners are threatened that they will not receive their pensions. After inhabitants of Cobusca Veche village of Anenii Noi district complained about the poor quality of the main road in their village, while residents of Stefanesti village of Floresti district complained of the poor condition of the bridge that connects them with the neighboring village, the road and the bridge were repaired immediately and the local representatives of the PCRM announced that the gravel and lumber were brought with the help of the PCRM. Speaking about the covering of the electoral campaign by the Transnistrian mass media, Ion Guzun said that the press in the monitored period provided a larger number of materials than in the previous period. Promo-LEX monitors the July 29 legislative elections in seven electoral districts as part of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009. The project is implemented with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).