The second round of 17 June local elections outrun qualitatively the conduct of the elections first round, held on 3 June 2007. The atmosphere was generally calm at the majority of polling stations throughout the Republic of Moldova, the voters not being obstructed to exercise their right to vote. At the same time, the Coalition 2007 observers reported a series of irregularities throughout the Election-day both at polling stations in Chisinau municipality and in country’s regions. Just as in the previous round, the voters’ lists were not up-to-date in a number of localities. At some polling stations voters were given more than one ballot and cases of fraudulent cast of several ballots by one person were registered. The practice of intimidation of national observers continued; they were obstructed from supervising the voting process and were refused access to electoral information.A case of severe violation of the fundamental right to vote was registered in Corjova village, in the security zone on the left bank of Nistru river, where illegal Transnistrian forces obstructed citizens’ access to the 15/3/5 polling station at “Mihai Eminescu” high school; intimidated and maltreated the voters, destroyed the voting booths and the ballot boxes.On the Election-Day, mass-media had a fair behavior in general, although the manner in which the electoral campaign was reflected was not precisely a professional one, the elections subject being ignored for few hours by the public TV channel. Also, noticeable is that the period between the two rounds of elections was marked by multiple attacks and libelous press articles about the Liberal Party candidate.
The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, Coalition 2007, used as evaluation criteria OSCE standards, the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), and other international documents. The general conclusion of the Coalition 2007 is that electoral process of local elections in the second round was mostly free but only partially fair, largely complying with international standards with the exception of Corjova village.
