Crowds of young rioters overran, ransacked, and set on fire the presidential and parliament buildings in Moldova's capital Chisinau on April 7. This outbreak may serve to embolden radical groups in Georgia on the eve of their April 9 demonstration, the declared goal of which is to force a change of government in Tbilisi.

Political violence was deemed unthinkable in Moldova until now. The nominally Communist Party won the parliamentary elections for the third consecutive time on April 5--this time with 49.5 percent of the votes cast--in a balloting assessed positively overall by Western observers and international organizations (EDM, April 7). The opposition's three nominally liberal parties seek to force the cancelation of the election results and called for public protests, which they seemed to expect to run peacefully. The opposition leaders, however, quickly lost control of the events they had helped trigger. Their resort to incendiary rhetoric was followed by the incendiary assault in the literal sense against the main state institutions. Equally inept, the authorities were blindsided and lost control of the situation.

The protests began peacefully in the evening of April 6 with a "rally of mourning" over the Communist Party's electoral success. Called via mobile phone and SMS messages by several obscure NGOs (the known and reputable ones were not involved), that rally as well as a follow-up one next morning were authorized by City Hall in accordance with the law, but degenerated into chaos by mid-day on April 7. The police, clearly intimidated, looked on, allowing the political protests at this point to descend into violent anarchy.

Up to 10,000 demonstrators, mostly in their twenties and teens, surrounded the presidency and parliament buildings (situated across from each other on the main avenue) and besieged both institutions for several hours. A violent core of up to one thousand forced their way inside in broad daylight, set fire to several floors in both buildings, carted out massive amounts of furniture and office equipment, and used some of these to light bonfires outside. The buildings and bonfires burned and smoldered through the night of April 7 to 8.

The police was present in small numbers and under strict orders from President Vladimir Voronin to refrain from using force in response to the violence. After initial attempts to use water hoses and "stun" petards to hold off the crowds, the police turned essentially into bystanders. Hopelessly outnumbered, some policemen were beaten up; others were rewarded with flowers for not responding with force; and ultimately the police abandoned the scene altogether by mid-afternoon. Rioters disabled three police vehicles and two fire-brigade vehicles that had attempted to intervene (Infotag, April 7). It was only by 2:00 AM on April 8, after most rioters had gone home, that the authorities returned to the scene and re-entered the devastated buildings.

Opposition leaders insist that the violence broke out "spontaneously." This seems true to some extent, but some elements of organization could also be seen. Stones and rocks were supplied to the crowd in great abundance, some of it carried by rioters with rucksacks. This "ammunition" proved decisive in holding the police at bay and breaking the doors and windows of the parliament and presidential buildings for the crowds to enter. At some moments, phalanxes of stone-throwers stepped out of the crowd, launched their projectiles and stepped back again.

The crowd was too chaotic to listen to political leaders or develop its own leadership, and too heterogeneous to voice a set of political demands. While many joined in hopes of forcing the cancellation of the parliamentary elections, others used the opportunity to call for Moldova's unification with Romania. This element within the crowd hoisted Romanian flags and pinned a large-size contour map of Greater Romania (inscribed, Romania My Fatherland) on the presidential building's entrance. Slogans at the rallies on April 6 and 7 included chants about "Bessarabia" uniting with Romania. This was not a dominant note, but it did touch a raw nerve in the authorities. Anti-communist slogans (variations on "down with communism") were ubiquitous. European symbols were very rare in the demonstration. The European election observers' generally positive assessment of the elections was completely ignored by the protesters.

Economic and social demands were entirely absent. By contrast, what French sociologists term "emeutes ludiques" (rioting for entertainment) was an omnipresent factor. The crowd's other common denominator was its young age. While most participants were university students and secondary-school pupils, however, many others were working-class or unemployed youths in those same age brackets.

The authorities' initial reaction was one of shock. Voronin and his top adviser, Marc Tcaciuc, made statements describing the assault as a "putsch," naming the three main opposition leaders as instigators, and alluding to involvement from Romania in the organization the protests. By the late evening, however, Voronin and the chairman of the outgoing parliament, Marian Lupu, invited the opposition leaders' trio--Liberal Party's Dorin Chirtoaca, Liberal-Democrat Party's Vlad Filat, and Our Moldova's Serafim Urecheanu--for talks and appeared with them on television in a joint format.

The three opposition leaders distanced themselves from the violence, claiming that they had tried unsuccessfully to reason with the protesters and were not heeded. But they did announce their intention to continue calling for political protests until the opposition's demands are met.

The opposition trio's main demand is non-recognition of the parliamentary election's results. One moment they demand outright cancelation of the elections and holding of new elections, the next moment to demand a recount of the votes in this election. Voronin and Lupu have agreed that recounts be held wherever the opposition shows evidence of fraud to the central and local election commissions, as the law provides. The opposition trio has not shown any evidence at all thus far, but is vowing to collect and submit it. The three parties have obtained a total of 40 parliamentary seats, the Communist Party 61 seats in the newly elected parliament (Moldpres, Moldovan TV Channel One, Infotag, ProTV, April 7, 8).

Vladimir Socor

MOLDOVAN TENSE AS OPPOSITION DISDAINS INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENTS OF THE ELECTIONS

by Vladimir Socor

Opposition protests against the outcome of Moldova's parliamentary elections triggered the seizure and ransacking of the presidency and parliament buildings by young rioting crowds on April 7 (see EDM, April 7, and article above). Thousands of youngsters from the same social groups and networks assembled again in downtown Chisinau on April 9 and announced follow-up demonstrations. The protesters as well as the opposition parties behind them seem to ignore or disdain the international assessment of the elections.

Some 2,530 observers from local NGOs and 620 international observers monitored the elections. The International Election Observation Mission--consisting of delegations from the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), OSCE's Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), and the European Parliament--has assessed the elections positively on the whole, with some reservations not affecting the outcome or the overall positive evaluation. The delegations' leaders gave the following assessments at the post-election news conference (OSCE press release, April 6): Petros Efthymiou, OSCE Greek Chairmanship-appointed head of the OSCE PA's observer delegation and coordinator of OSCE short-term observers: "These elections were very good and gave me great confidence in the future of this country."

David Wilshire (British Tory), head of the PACE observer delegation: "a relaxed, mainly well-run and democratic polling day. Now the new parliament needs to make the necessary improvements to Moldova's legal framework and electoral code."

Marianne Mikko (Estonian Social-Democrat member of the European Parliament, chairing the EP-Moldova commission), head of the European Parliament's observer delegation: "We noted real improvements in comparison with the 2005 parliamentary elections. However, further efforts must be made, in particular with regard to the position of the public broadcasting organization."

Nikolai Vulchanov (Bulgaria), head of the OSCE ODIHR's long-term observation mission: "Our overall assessment is positive, but there is a need to inject more trust in the electoral environment, including through unbiased news reporting by the public broadcaster, improving voter registration procedures, and ensuring that contestants are treated equally by the authorities."

In the International Mission's collective assessment, these elections "offer[ed] voters distinct political alternatives. The legal framework generally provided an adequate basis for the conduct of a democratic election, although important previous recommendations remain to be addressed. Election day was well organized and passed calmly and peacefully, the voting and counting process was assessed positively by the observers, despite a number of significant procedural shortcomings. The media provided contestants with opportunities to convey their message in particularly thorough debates and paid airtime. The state broadcaster [however] blurred the distinction between the coverage of duties of state officials and their campaign activities" (Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions, press release, April 6).

This general assessment will be followed, according to established practice, within some weeks or a few months by a detailed technical assessment from the OSCE's ODIHR, with recommendations for further improvements in the electoral process. Meanwhile Mikko commented for Estonian radio that, whether one likes the Communist Party or not, this is the "legally elected party" and "this was the desire of the Moldovan people" (Infotag, April 7).

Opposition leaders as well as the uncontrolled rioters seem impervious to these international assessments. The opposition had similarly demanded in 2005 the cancellation of elections, even after the International Observation Mission had assessed those elections positively on the whole. The present cast of opposition leaders is mostly different from that of four years ago, with the notable exception of Our Moldova leader Serafim Urecheanu, whose group had banked on Moscow's support at that time.

President Vladimir Voronin (whose second, final term of office is expiring) and the outgoing parliament's chairman, Marian Lupu, stated on television that any complaints about electoral fraud or the compilation of electoral lists must be referred to the territorial electoral commissions, accompanied by evidence. Under the law, the Central Electoral Commission has until April 10 to announce the final results, based on tabulation from the local commissions. Any contestations can then be filed with the courts. Opposition leaders have not presented any evidence of fraud thus far. Instead, they now voice suspicion that the electoral commissions had tampered with the voter registration, in ways presumed to have favored the Communist Party well ahead of the elections. Opposition party representatives, however, had sat on all electoral commissions during the pre-election period. The Central Electoral Commission has announced that it would make the voter registration records available to the opposition parties for checking (Moldpres, Infotag, April 8).

Voronin is dividing the blame for the riots evenly between the local opposition and Romania. Addressing a large gathering government and non-governmental officials on television, Voronin has announced that the Romanian ambassador and the deputy chief of mission have been declared persona non grata. Bucharest has already announced that it would not respond tit-for-tat. Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is introducing entry visa requirements, in place of the visa-free entry which Romania's citizens have thus far enjoyed in Moldova. The visas will be issued gratis, as are Romanian entry visas for Moldova's citizens (Moldpres, April 8).

Neither Voronin nor other Moldovan authorities have presented any evidence of Romanian involvement, however. Their Romania-bashing seems, as Romanian Senate Chairman Mircea Geoana has described it, "born of panic" (Rompres, April 8). With this exception, however, Moldovan authorities handled the violent rampage with calculated restraint after the initial shock. As Chisinau's police chief, Iacob Gumenai, announced in the evening of August 7--based on Voronin's orders--and as the President said more elaborately the following day, the authorities decided "at all costs to avoid bloodshed."

Eurasia Daily Monitor. The Jamestown Foundation

April 9, 2009—Volume 6, Issue 68