MOLDOVAN COMMUNISTS TOP LOCAL POLLS... Reports from Moldova suggest that, with some votes still uncounted, the second round of local elections on June 17 confirmed a drift away from the Communist Party.
After run-offs in 474 of the 898 mayoral elections, it appears a total of 328 Communists will serve as mayor, down from the 368 elected in 2003 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 5, 2007). The largest opposition party, the Our Moldova alliance, added 94 to the 61 mandates it won outright in the first poll, but this still leaves it short of the 191 mayoral seats it won in 2003. The move toward smaller parties was also apparent in the single most important individual battle, in the capital, Chisinau. There, Dorin Chirtoaca, a 28-year-old human-rights activist and member of the Liberal Party, turned a four-point deficit from the first round into 23-point victory, raising his first-round share of the vote from 24.3 percent to over 61 percent. His Communist rival, Veaceslav Iordan, finished with 38.8 percent, just 11 percentage points more than he garnered in the first round. The Communist Party has failed to win in Chisinau in seven local elections since 1991. Simultaneously held elections reduced the number of Communists in Chisinau's 51-seat City Council from 25 to 16. The turnout in Chisinau was 35 percent, roughly the same as the 37 percent achieved in the first round but significantly less than the 60 percent or more reported in some other areas. AG ...WHILE MONITORS STRIKE DOWNBEAT NOTE. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) described the conduct of the second round of polling as "slightly" better than the first, but added that "serious shortcomings remained," according to a June 18 OSCE statement. The OSCE said its monitors found that "key problems identified during the pre-electoral period persisted, particularly media bias and intimidation of candidates" and that the Moldovan authorities "failed to take remedial action prior to the second round." Election monitors found that the standard of the administration of the elections varied considerably from polling station to polling station. The June 17 polls included reruns of elections in nine areas where the results of the first round were declared invalid or null. The Council of Europe, which contributed to the international monitoring effort, said in a statement that, as in the first round, it heard "allegations of pressure on, and intimidation of, candidates and voters." It criticized the Central Election Committee (CEC) for delaying publication of the first-round results, for releasing incomplete data, and for failing to take adequate steps to clarify inaccuracies and to iron out "inconsistent practices." It also found that the state media continued to provide the ruling Communist Party with undue coverage, and criticized negative campaigning in Chisinau. The council concluded, though, that the actual vote was "slightly more positive" than the first round. The biggest problems were in Corjova, a local community on the border separating Moldova from the breakaway region of Transdniester, where Transdniestrian militia prevented villagers from voting. AG Copyright (c) 2007 RFE/RL, Inc. ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
