Uprising in Moldova as Communists win election
President agrees recount as mob attacks parliament
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
REUTERS
People shout slogans during a protest in the centre of Chisinau, protesters denouncing a Communist election victory in Moldova seized the president's offices on Tuesday and broke into parliament where they hurled furniture and computers into the street
More pictures
Violence rocked the Moldovan capital of Chisinau yesterday as thousands of protesters stormed the presidential administration building and parliament in a second day of street protests. Footage showed the protesters, mostly young men, hurling rocks at the windows of the presidential administration building and setting it on fire as large crowds looked on.
The riots came after parliamentary elections at the weekend gave President Vladimir Voronin's Communist Party around 50 per cent of the votes. Protesters shouted "Freedom!" and "Down with the Communists!" and clashed with riot police. They waved flags of neighbouring Romania, the EU member with which Moldova has cultural and linguistic links, as well as blue and yellow EU flags.
Government offices were ransacked, with papers and computers thrown from windows as protesters overran the buildings. Moldovan state television reported that 34 protesters had been injured in the disturbances, two of them seriously. Around 80 police officers also received treatment, and there were reports of a young woman dying of carbon monoxide poisoning in the parliament building.
Activists from the three leading opposition parties that contested the elections said that they did not believe that the published results of the voting were accurate. The opposition parties want to see closer integration with the EU, and Romania in particular, as well as more transparent and democratic government in the country.
Mr Voronin said that protesting against the election result was a "pretext" for people trying to destabilise the country and called for an end to the "bacchanalia". Late in the afternoon the President met opposition leaders for talks, and it was announced that there would be a full and thorough recount of the ballots, which could take up to 10 days.
The Moldovan President, who has been in power since 2001, is head of one of the last Communist governments in Europe, although analysts say that his government pays only lip service to Marxist ideals, using the label as a convenient way to gain affection among older segments of the population. Most of those protesting were students, determined to see a more modernising and effective government.
The election results give the Communist Party control of the parliament, which will elect a new president. Mr Voronin is unable to serve a third term as president, but he is expected to attempt to remain influential. One possibility is that he will follow Vladimir Putin in Russia by moving from the presidency to the prime ministership.
Although seen by Russia as within its sphere of interest, Moldova has also been keen to develop ties with the EU. It is the poorest country in Europe and was last month included in a list of six eastern European states to which the EU will offer financial aid.
"International election observers noted in their preliminary findings that the elections met many international standards and commitments, but that further improvements were required," said the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. He encouraged both the protesters and the authorities to show restraint.
Of particular concern to the EU will be the fate of Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region, where Moscow-backed separatists run a strip of land that is not internationally recognised as a country but has its own government and currency. The situation is in some ways reminiscent of events in South Ossetia in the run-up to last summer's conflict between Russia and Georgia, although few observers expect a similar full-scale military conflict to erupt.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
They want a government which serves their narrow privileged interests instead of one that gives minimum support for the rest of the population.
It would have been nice for "the independent" to point out that the vote was described as "free and fair" by the thousands of election monitors present in the country instead of presenting an ambiguous and out of context quote by Javier Solana to imply that there is even a shred of evidence of electoral fraud here. But then again who can resist another pathetic "potato revolution" in Eastern Europe against those backwards "anti-west" policies.
Firstly, a very large proportion of citizens who would have voted for the opposition live and work outside Moldova due to the limited economic opportunities within the country. The CP had absolutely no incentive to offer a simple absentee ballot system for these foreign Moldovans - it would be akin to turkeys voting for Christmas - so the result was that anyone wishing to vote had to register and be present in their electoral district on the day unless they had taken complex steps to secure an absentee ballot.
Secondly, the state media was one long advertising campaign for the CP and the opposition parties were offered the bare minimum of recognition on TV, radio etc.
Thirdly, on the day before the election bread prices were reduced across the country in an act of munificence by the government AKA the CP.
At this juncture my telephone rang and I was unable to follow the rest of the interview but it seemed that there were further dubious electoral practices being outlined.
This illustrates the folly of the West's reliance on Election Obersver Missions. These achieve nothing more than to rubber-stamp elections which are often frauded. Only a voting system which is fraud-proof will solve this problem of dictatorship, corruption, massive presidential-level fraud, and the continuation of poverty. There exist on paper voting systems which can deliver real and raw democracy to the Third World, but because of selfish and greedy financial self-interest the International Community brutally suppresses such initiatives. Mr Alex Weir, Gaborone and Harare
Voronin declared that the election was correct, because the Central Election Committee has not received any complaint. He also noted that students in Moldavia are happy, because last year was some sort of anniversary year for students, and they received attention.
The Internet connection with Moldavia appeared to have been cut selectively yesterday, and this may explain the first two comments.
I believe that Western observers bear some responsibility for violences both in Georgia and Moldavia. When they accepted election frauds, they increased tensions within those societies.
In Georgia, the election was frauded by an anti-Russian politician. I said that this was wrong, too, and led to increased tensions.
Can you get anything right? You remember me low quality products and services under the communist regime. In case you do this for free, do it better.
And I don't buy the "we in the West" syntagm. You are a well educated Russian. For example, the idea of communist parties winning elections in West was a Russian obsession. I did not discuss that here, you only thought I did. In West, communists can win elections, because elections are free.
I s it a big surprise there were some irregularities? We in the west are far from perfect democracies. In Ireland we have a traditional saying- vote early and vote often, and I have heard not just of multiple voting, rare as it is, but even of dead people voting. However these practices are rare and not widespread. As for the UK-neither Margaret Thatcher nor Tony Blair ever received a majority of the votes cast yet both acheived huge majorities in Parliament,indeed in the last election Labour received about 35 % and the Tories about 32%, yet labour maintain a comfortable majority in Parliament- control of the minority over the majority is not democracy.
Also many countries don't offer absentee ballots- I can't vote in Ireland- I don't live there now, pay taxes there and I am not directly affected by government decisions, so no vote for me- If there was an absentee ballot the influence of non-residents on Irish elections would be huge and unfair.
This is the government which it seems is being said to have allowed a 'free and fair' election. The reason for low investment in the country is that, according to a Chamber of Commerce article' in Chisinau 20% of goods imported are filched by corruption. etc etc
THis is no critism of the Russian people who have suffered for so long under there communist and supposed free non communist government.