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Protests against the April 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election began on 7 April 2009, in major cities of Moldova (including Bălţi and the capital, Chişinău) before results were announced. The demonstrators claimed that the elections, which saw the governing Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) win a majority of seats, were fraudulent, and alternatively demanded a recount, a new election, or resignation of the government. Similar demonstrations took place in other major Moldovan cities, including the country's second largest, Bălţi, where over 7,000 people protested. The protesters organized themselves using an online social network service, Twitter, hence its moniker used by the media, the Twitter Revolution〔("Twitter Revolution: Fearing Uprising, Russia Backs Moldova's Communists" ), Spiegel, April 10, 2009〕〔("Moldova's "Twitter Revolution"" ), RFE/RL, April 8, 2009〕 or the Grape Revolution. In Chişinău, where the number of protesters rose above 30,000, the demonstration escalated into a riot on 7 April. Rioters attacked the parliament building and presidential office, breaking windows, setting furniture on fire and stealing property. ==Background== The unrest began as a public protest after the announcement of preliminary election results on April 6, 2009, which showed the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova victorious, winning approximately 50% of the votes. Final results, published on April 8, showed that the PCRM garnered 49.48% of the vote, gaining 60 parliament seats – one less than the three-fifths required for the party to control the presidential election. The opposition rejected the election results, accusing the authorities of falsification in the course of counting the votes and demanded new elections. 〔("30 000 de protestatari au spart uşile Parlamentului şi ale Preşedinţiei" ), UNIMEDIA, April 7〕〔 ("Tinerii zgâlţâie comunismul la Chişinău" ), ''Evenimentul Zilei'', April 8, 2009〕〔("Eyewitness: Moldova protests" ), BBC, April 8〕 The PCRM has been in power since 2001. A series of protests have been organized by opposition parties in 2003, when the government attempted to replace the school subject "History of the Romanians" with "History of Moldova". Students protested for months before the government backed down on its plans.〔(«Le problème identitaire au coeur de la crise en Moldavie» ), ''Le Figaro'', April 15, 2009〕 Petru Negură, a university professor of sociology at the Moldova State University and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, France, attributed the origins of the crisis to the ethnic identity problem: some people in Moldova identify themselves as "Moldovans", while others as "Romanians".〔 The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) International Election Observing Mission declared the elections generally free and fair, although it also reported that the comparison of data on the voting age population provided by the Moldovan Ministry of the Interior with the number of registered voters provided by local executive authorities revealed a discrepancy of some 160,000.〔("Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions" ), ''International Election Observation Mission'', ''Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights'', 6 April 2009. Accessed 2009-07-22. (Archived ) 2009-07-31.〕 A member of the OSCE observation team, Emma Nicholson disagreed with the assessment of the OSCE report on the fairness of the elections.〔("Romania blamed over Moldova riots" ), BBC, April 8, 2009〕 A number of voters have also reported cases of fraud where deceased and nonattendant persons were registered as having voted.〔 ("Cum votează morţii în Republica Moldova" ), ''cotidianul.ro'', 8 April 2009〕〔 ("Fraude Non-stop: semnături false în liste" ), ''Ziarul de Gardă'', 8 April 2009〕〔 ("Revolta anticomunista in Republica Moldov" ), ''HotNews.ro'', 8 April 2009〕 According to Vladimir Socor, a political analyst for the Jamestown Foundation, the elections were evaluated as positive on the whole, with some reservations not affecting the outcome or the overall initial assessment. Exit polls had showed a comfortable win for the Communist Party, with the only uncertainty being the size of the winning margin.〔 Opposition parties pointed out that the lists of eligible voters included 300,000 more people compared to the previous elections, although the population of Moldova has been shrinking.〔("Moldova threatens Europe’s eastern overtures" ), ''Financial Times'', April 17, 2009〕 Due to this, they claimed that around 400,000 fictive voters have been created in the last two months and, therefore, changed the voting result.〔 ("În două luni au fost clonaţi 400 de mii de moldoveni " ), ''Timpul'', April 15, 2009 . Accessed 2009-07-22. (Archived ) 2009-07-31. 〕 It was also claimed that the authorities have also printed more than one voting bulletin for certain persons.〔(Ziua, April 10, 2009 ) 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「April 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election protests」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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