All a Twitter

The streets of Chişinău Moldova were quiet Wednesday morning.

Protesters had left the scene of the rioting on Tuesday night, and police retook control of parliament.

But opposition leaders said protests would continue.

Vlad Filat, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, called the demonstrations
"a spontaneous action by protesting young people".

He said the opposition had tried to prevent excesses, like the attacks on parliament, but said:
"We are not scared of arrests or intimidation. The people do not want to live like this and want
to live free and without fear."

Word of the demonstrations was spread by text message, via the internet, and on social networking tools.

"We sent messages on Twitter but didn't expect 15,000 people to join in. At the most we expected 1,000," Oleg Brega, of the activist group Hyde Park told the Associated Press news agency.


In Moldova's general election on April 5, 2009 the Communist Party won 50% of the votes, followed by the Liberal Party with 13% of the votes and the Liberal Democratic Party with 12%. The opposition leaders have protested against the outcome calling it fraudulent and demanded a repeated election.

A report by OSCE said Sunday's vote was "generally free and fair".

However, one member of the OSCE observation team questioned that conclusion: Baroness Emma Nicholson said that she and a number of other team members feel that there had been some manipulation, but they were unable to find any proof.

But opposition leaders organized a protest demonstration on April 6 and 7, 2009, with thousands of young protesters in Chişinău, accusing the Communist government of electoral fraud.

The demonstration spun out of control and turned into a riot when a crowd attacked the parliament building and broke into the presidential offices, looting and setting them on fire.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLODVA
Adopted on the 29 th of July 1994

“The State of the Republic of Moldova
(1) The Republic of Moldova is a sovereign, independent, unitary and indivisible state.
(2) The form of government of the State is the republic.
(3) Governed by the rule of law, the Republic of Moldova is a democratic State…”