Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CHISINAU127
2008-02-11 05:45:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Chisinau
Cable title:  

CHANGING THE ELECTION COMMISSION, AND THE RULES OF THE

Tags:  PGOV MD 
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RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHCH #0127 0420545
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
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FM AMEMBASSY CHISINAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6244
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS CHISINAU 000127 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/UMB, DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV MD
SUBJECT: CHANGING THE ELECTION COMMISSION, AND THE RULES OF THE
GAME, BEFORE 2009 ELECTIONS

REFS: A. Chisinau 0085, B. 07 Chisinau 1517, C. 07 Chisinau 1509,

D. 07 Chisinau 1455, E. 07 Chisinau 1380

Sensitive But Unclassified. Please Protect Accordingly.

UNCLAS CHISINAU 000127

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/UMB, DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV MD
SUBJECT: CHANGING THE ELECTION COMMISSION, AND THE RULES OF THE
GAME, BEFORE 2009 ELECTIONS

REFS: A. Chisinau 0085, B. 07 Chisinau 1517, C. 07 Chisinau 1509,

D. 07 Chisinau 1455, E. 07 Chisinau 1380

Sensitive But Unclassified. Please Protect Accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary: Unhappy with opposition party dominance of the
Central Electoral Commission (CEC),the ruling Communist Party may
be planning to take legal measures to ensure itself a dominant
position in the electoral-administration body for the 2009
parliamentary elections. Revising existing CEC legislation would be
a public-relations disaster, but the GOM could argue that the
changes simply conform to EU norms. Such a step combined with other
draft legislation changes the rules of the game in ways that
strengthen the ruling party and make it harder for small parties to
gain seats in Parliament. End Summary.

Adjusting the Rules one Year before Elections
--------------


2. (SBU) Within weeks, an informal coalition of the Communist (PCRM)
and Christian Democrat (PPCD) parties may pass in final reading
changes to the Electoral Code which limit small-party access to
Parliament. Two bills are involved, one which forbids electoral
coalitions during election campaigns, and another that will most
likely raise the popular-vote threshold from 4% to 5%, though the
initial draft had specified 6%.


3. (SBU) Challenging minority-party dominance in the CEC is
apparently the Communist Party's next idea for gaining addition
control over the electoral process. The CEC has responsibility for
registering or rejecting candidates, solving disputes, and ensuring
that rules are followed. The only way to change the composition of
the CEC is to change the rules by which members are appointed, and
apply the new rules to oust members before the expiration of their
terms. The Communists have the majority vote in Parliament required
to push through such legislation, no matter how opportunistic this
would appear. We hear from both contacts in the CEC as well as
staffers in Parliament that such a move is now under consideration.


4. (SBU) Our contacts have told us that the new rules would provide
that the Government, the President and the Parliament each appoint
three CEC members, easily guaranteeing a five-seat majority for the
PCRM in the nine-member body. The current CEC was appointed on
November 11, 2005, for a five-year term; one of its members is
appointed by the President, one by the Government and seven by the
Parliament. (Parliament's group of seven includes five members from
opposition parties.) That formula was adopted in a 2005 agreement
between PCRM and PPCD (along with opposition leaders Diacov and
Serebrian),under which they agreed to vote for Voronin as President
in exchange for opposition control of the CEC. Now that Voronin is
in his final term as President and no longer needs all the
non-Communist Party votes in Parliament, the PCRM wants control of
the CEC, which it ceded in the 2005 vote deal, back again.


5. (SBU) The legal changes, our sources say, would arouse local and
international opposition. However, they said, the PCRM could
sanitize the operation somewhat by dividing the CEC into two
distinct organizations-a permanent body that decides on electoral
policy, and commissions temporarily constituted to oversee each
election. The division, allowing PCRM dominance of any ad hoc
commission for the 2009 elections, would have the advantage of
conforming to European standards, as many European countries have
such a dual CEC structure. It is not absolutely certain that the
PCRM is going to attempt to force through this change; we are
reporting unofficial comments by well-placed individuals in a
position to know.


6. (SBU) Additionally, a reported January 29 rejection by the
Ministry of Finance of the CEC's draft budget may be a harbinger of
future PCRM activities. The rejection, which we heard about
privately from GOM contacts, has resulted in the suspension of CEC
funding and the freezing of its bank accounts.

Comment
--------------


7. (SBU) The budgetary freeze and the threat of restructuring the
CEC, along with the budgetary manipulations described in ref C, hint
at administrative threats to the integrity of elections. The actual
manipulations of elections described in refs B, D, and E indicate
that the PCRM is willing to take direct action as well We know that
the Communist Party is eager to stay in power, and apparently it is
willing to use a variety of means to engineer the rules of the game
to its own advantage. End comment.