Moldova orders vote recount amid rally

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"The Constitutional Court of Moldova hereby orders the Central Election Commission to recount within nine days all ballots cast by voters in the election of April 5," Reuters news agency quoted Court Chairman Dumitru Pulbere as saying after the court's sitting. Pulbere also said the recount would involve an examination of voters' lists as demanded by the opposition, which has alleged mass poll fraud. "These two issues are closely linked. You cannot do one without the other," he said.

He also acknowledged the process could take longer than anticipated. The court, he said, had already given the election commission two days more than set down by law as Moldova's majority Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter next week. Earlier yesterday, about 10,000 protesters massed in Chisinau's main square to hear opposition party leaders accuse Voronin's administration of keeping demonstrators incommunicado and ill-treating them. About 200 protesters have been detained.

The protesters massed in front of the government headquarters for a series of fiery speeches and chanted "Down with Communists, democracy for Moldova!"

But the atmosphere remained relatively restrained after calls for calm by an anxious European Union and the United States. Most of those present were older demonstrators, after many young activists were arrested last week.

"We should voice our protest at human rights violations.... Hundreds of innocent young people have been arrested and beaten by the police," the leader of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, Vlad Filat, told the crowd, according Agence France-Presse.