ENEMO issues statement on parliamentary election in Moldova

ENEMO (European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations) has issued a statement on the pre-term parliamentary election in the Republic of Moldova.
‘The ENEMO International Observers’ Mission in the Republic of Moldova officially declares that it withdraws its international monitoring mission of the parliamentary election in the Republic of Moldova. The mission would like to declare that, under the conditions created by the authorities, it is absolutely impossible to perform an adequate monitoring. Besides opposition by the official authorities, the observers received threats from unknown persons of criminal appearance. In this situation, the mission cannot guarantee the security of its observers and will have to stop its activities,’ says the statement.
ENEMO accused the Moldovan government of exceeding their authority and violating the national legislation, as well as the international standards in the field of democratic elections.
At the same time, the statement stressed the fact that the society of Moldova is open to the fairness and transparency of the election and supports the international monitoring, which is proven by a public opinion poll.
The ENEMO mission in Moldova included 140 NGO activists from 12 European countries. Most of them were denied accreditation by the Central Electoral Commission of Moldova without proper explanation, including the mission’s head Sergey Tkachenko. Among other offences against the observers, the statement mentions threats and numerous efforts to discredit the mission. As a result, many observers were deported from the country.
In his interview with the BelaPAN news agency, head of the Human Rights Center Viasna and vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) Ales Bialiatski, said that 9 Viasna’s members were made to leave Moldova together with other deported observers.
‘The mission has left Moldova. The formal cause for the deportation was the lack of accreditation from the Central Electoral Commission. In spite of the fact that two persons did receive accreditation, they also decided to leave the country, since it was impossible to cover every event of the election under the circumstances,’ said Mr.Bialiatski.