International observers concerned about numerous irregularities in election campaign

The election campaign faces numerous irregularities that have begun even before election day, said Jelko Kacin, Vice-Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee during a meeting with Serafim Urecheanu, the leader of “Moldova Noastra” (“Our Moldova”) Alliance (MNA), a press release of MNA reads. Kacin, who is visiting Moldova to observe the local elections, mentioned the monitoring reports conducted by civil society reveal the lack of progress in the area of mass-media, chiefly in the broadcasting field, which continues to serve the interests of the governing forces to the detriment of other electoral competitors and of the society as a whole. “Such a situation was predictable, but we have to plead for a profound progress”, said the Slovenian MEP. According to the cited source, the European institutions are rather unenthusiastic about a potential EU enlargement. Given this situation, Moldova’s chances depend decisively on its democratic progress, Jelko Kacin said. He underlined that the EU will watch more closely Moldova’s internal evolutions, whose radical change is in the interest of the European development, and this message is addressed to both politicians and population that is expected to decide. The Party of Communists is breaking all the norms, both legislative and ethical, in the course of this election campaign, Serafim Urechean, Chairman of the ”Moldova Noastra” Alliance said for his part. He concluded that at the last stage of the election campaign there are reasons to recognise it as unfair, inequitable and tainted by fraud. It remains to be seen what Election Day will bring, because in the 2005 parliamentary elections the communists increased their vote share by at least 6% by tampering with the electoral rolls, which saw a large number of voters who, in fact, were working abroad, the AMN Chairmen informed the foreign observers. In what concerns the refusal of the Republic of Moldova to align with the European standards, it is obviously explained by the antinational character of the governing regime and its leader, who is against the European integration. Serafim Urechean condemned the fact that at the recent summit of the Central European countries in Brno, President Vladimir Voronin delivered a practically anti-European speech, focused on issues of national identity, status of neutrality, the poverty and territorial issues, this way discouraging the occidental support in the process of Moldova’s EU integration. The Western leaders have bet wrong on Voronin, and as long as he will be in power in Chisinau and Smirnov in Tiraspol, the settlement of the Transnistrian dispute and the democratic and economic progress in Moldova is impossible, the leader of the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance said.