Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin called on Friday for a recount of an election, saying it would restore trust and calm after violent demonstrations by protesters alleging the vote was rigged.
Opposition parties said the president’s offer was meaningless and intended to distract attention from mass fraud on voters’ lists. The parties have demanded a new election in the country of 4 million wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
Voronin, Europe’s only ruling communist, asked the Constitutional Court to allow a recount of the April 5 vote, in which the communists finished far in front with nearly 50 percent of the vote.
PHOTO: AP
The court, dominated by his supporters, is likely to agree.
“I, as chairman of the party which gained undoubted victory in the fair and democratic contest, approach the Constitutional Court for a clear decision on the need for a full recount of the votes cast in the parliamentary election,” Voronin said.
“A full recount ... would be an important argument for the restoration of political stability, peace and mutual confidence in the Moldovan Republic,” he said in the request.
The president’s office later said Voronin had met US Ambassador Asif Chaudhry and promised to take steps to create dialogue between the authorities and the opposition.
In Washington, a US State Department spokesman told reporters the US welcomed the call for a recount. He said Chaudhry also met opposition leaders and that on Thursday the opposition was given four days to review voter rolls.
Thousands of demonstrators looted and set fire to the parliament and the president’s offices on Tuesday in the worst violence to sweep Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, in decades.
The president, speaking to reporters on Friday, again blamed opposition parties for the violence.
Voronin has accused EU member Romania of trying to stage a coup as part of plans to annex Moldova, with which it shares ethnic and linguistic ties. He expelled its ambassador and denied entry to Romanian journalists.
The Central Election Commission this week confirmed results showing Voronin’s party winning nearly half the vote — a ruling that implied there would be no recount.
The results gave the communists just short of 50 percent of the vote and 60 seats in the 101-member assembly — one short of the number needed to ensure victory for the party’s candidate when the assembly elects the president.
Eight out of nine court judges in the Constitutional Court were appointed under Voronin.
Opponents said the recount proposal was an attempt to mask fraud. They say thousands of dead people and Moldovans who work abroad were on voters’ lists and had votes cast in their names.
“This is a trick to draw attention from fraud on the voter lists,” said Serafim Urecheanu, leader of Our Moldova, one of three opposition parties to win seats in the election.
He said authorities were hindering checks of the lists although the Commission granted access to them this week.
After 10,000-strong demonstrations on Monday and Tuesday, only about 100 protesters stood outside the government building on Friday. Many held daffodils described as symbols of peace and spring. Dozens of riot police stood behind the building.
“I just came here because I felt so strongly about this,” said Vasile, a teacher. “The nation was deceived.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including