EL notes that the AEI is doing everything possible to avoid early parliamentary elections that must be held in compliance with the Constitution. The dissolution of parliament and the holding of early parliamentary elections were reiterated as necessary by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe in its recommendations published on March 15th 2010. We urge Moldovan authorities not to interpret the Venice Commission recommendations, but to respect them. We call the newly elected AEI government to urgently set the date for early elections.
We are deeply concerned about the government’s attempts to ban the name and symbols of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova. It must been seen as a further attempt to remove the biggest electoral force in Moldova from the election campaign. Banning the name and symbols of the biggest political party deprives Moldovan citizens of their right to freedom of choice, freedom to elect and to be elected.
We stress that all of the above is taking place against the background of ongoing intimidation and persecution of media that question the current government, thousands of dismissals on political grounds, excessive politicization of central and local government secretariats, intimidation of the opposition and attempts to remove it from the forthcoming election race, permanent changes to legislation based on the AEI leaders’ own political ambitions.