Parliamentary elections in Moldova meet international standards — OSCE monitors

Baku. 1 December. REPORT.AZ/ The November 30 parliamentary elections in Moldova met all international standards and were held in compliance with the country’s laws, Arta Dade, Head of the OSCE PA delegation, said on Monday.

“Thousands of people worked hard to make yesterday’s election come together, and I applaud the efforts of the polling station workers. The failure for several hours yesterday of the electronic voter’s register was an unfortunate glitch to an otherwise smoothly run election day,” Dade told a joint news conference with representatives of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR); the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament.

“The 30 November parliamentary elections were characterized by a wide choice of political alternatives and were generally well administered, although the deregistration of one electoral contestant shortly before election day raised questions about the timing and circumstances,” international election observers said in a statement issued on Monday.

The Patria (Motherland) party of Russian businessman Renato Usatyi had to withdraw from the race in the final stage.

The OSCE monitors will later submit a final report on the November 30 parliamentary elections in Moldova, informs Report citing TASS.

Moldova’s Party of Socialists (leader Igor Dodon) which favours Moldova’s Eurasian integration, is leading with 21% after 91% of the votes have been counted, Moldova’s Central Electoral Commission reports.

The Communist Party of Moldova (led by the country’s former president, Vladimir Voronin), which had led the elections for the past 15 years, was only third this time with 17% of the votes. A group of three pro-European parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (led by the former prime minister Vlad Filat); the Democratic Party of Marian Lupu and the Liberal Party of Mihai Ghimpu which wants Moldova to unite with Romania and join NATO, gained 19%, 15% and 9%, respectively.