PLDM asks Moldova's partners to condition granting assistance

The Liberal Democratic Party from Moldova (PLDM) asks the EU countries, the European institutions, and the United States to condition granting assistance to Moldova by a series of legal modifications. PLDM wants the Parliament to re-institute the 4% electoral threshold, to allow electoral blocs, to guarantee the access to public functions regardless of possible dual citizenship, to insure the opposition's access to the public television. The party launched an appeal in this regard on Tuesday, following the joint declaration signed by the EU embassies and institutions accredited to Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. First vice president of PLDM, Alexandru Tanase, has told a news conference the statement of the diplomatic missions confirms the deviations of the ruling coalition. PLDM finds that faking the 2009 elections is happening now, by harassing opposition parties, restricting opposition leaders' access to the public television, manipulating the Broadcasting Coordinating Council in the rulers' interests. PLDM also demands to exert pressure on fighting corruption among high dignitaries, the trafficking in human beings and to curb the political interference into the business environment. At the same time, the party reiterates that the European Parliament needs to urgently pass a resolution on the “the anti-democratic deviation in Moldova and the violation of the human rights.” According to Alexandru Tanase, the democratic deviation in Moldova are largely due to the position of the European institutions, which have adopted “an ostrich policy”, avoiding to give clear appreciations and launching encouraging messages in the authorities' address. The PLDM leader says it is very important that the West makes use of its pressure tools it uses in relation with the totalitarian regimes from Minsk or Tiraspol. In a joint statement issued on July 17, the EU embassies and two offices to Chisinau urged the Moldovan authorities to send as soon as possible the Electoral Code for the expertise of the Council of Europe and the OSCE and to fully respect their recommendations, especially concerning the electoral threshold, the electoral blocs and the full exerting of the right to be elected. The signatories expressed their concern with the law-enforcement bodies against media, with the editorial independence of Teleradio Moldova and with the pluralism in the broadcasting sector and found that some state agencies had stepped up their harassment actions against different political parties and their supporters.