Elections 2011 | Bashcan 2010 | Referendum 2010 | Gagauzia 2008 | Elections 2007 | Political Parties | Commentaries

• The new general mayor of Chisinau municipality is the candidate on behalf of the Liberal Party, Dorin Chirtoaca, who received over 61 percent of the valid votes cast in the second round of elections.

  The Central Electoral Commission has processed over 573,000 valid votes cast in the second round of local elections and published preliminary results. Voter turnout reached 53.38 nationwide, and was almost the same as at the first round on 3 June 2007. As a result of the poll, 471 mayors were elected.

• According to the findings of international observers on behalf of the OSCE/ODHIR and the Congress of Local and Regional Powers in Europe, the ballot in the second round of local elections has slightly improved as compared to the 3 June one, but some deficiencies have still persisted. Among the positive features of the 17 June ballot, the following were noted: calm atmosphere at polling stations; reduced number of unauthoriesed people within polling stations; timely opening of polling stations, etc.

  A press statement from the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections — Coalition 2007, said local elections in the second round generally met international standards of fair elections, except for the case of Corjova village, and were partially free. According to Coalition 2007 observers, on the day of the voting the atmosphere was generally calm at most polling stations, and voters could exercise freely their voting right. At the same time, breaches similar to those registered in the 3 June poll were recorded:

  • poor quality of voter rolls;
  • issue of several ballot papers to one voter;
  • cases of deposition into the ballot box of more than one ballot;
  • observers were intimidated and prevented from unhindered observation of the entire voting process, etc.

  The media behaved in a generally fair manner on the day of the voting, although the method of coverage of elections was not necessarily a professional one, the elections being neglected for several hours by the public TV channel. The period in-between the two rounds was marked by multiple personal attacks and libel against the candidate from the Liberal Party.