Developing story: Violent demonstrations in Moldova after Sunday's elections

I just received a text message from Moldova telling me that a demonstration against Sunday's election results that started this morning at 10 am has turned violent. Stones are flying towards the Parliament and the Presidential Palace. Police reacts with water cannons.

Developing story... See also my previous post from yesterday on the election outcomes and these background information to understand why this (might have) happened.

Update (16:30): Spoke to somebody on the phone who is in Chisinau. I was told that President Voronin is meeting the three main opposition leaders as well as the representatives of the European and international community today. Meanwhile, protests continue in the city centre of Chisinau, without main developments lately.

Update (20:15): In a video you can see discussions between the president, the opposition parties, and the other communist leaders. The video is in Romanian, but you can see the most important political figures of Moldova: In the centre, President Voronin, on the right the three main opposition politicians Vlad Filat (Liberal Democratic Party PLDM; next to the president), Dorin Chirtoaca (the mayor of Chisinau, Liberal Party PL), and Serafim Urecheanu (Alliance "Our Moldova" AMN), and on the left the speaker of the Parliament Marian Lupu and the Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanîi. According to news reports, they have agreed on a recount, although I am not sure whether this could be counted as a win for the opposition because the results so far were only preliminary results that will have to be confirmed anyway. But as far as I can understand, it also about waiting with the recognition of the final results until all complaints by the opposition have been filed and dealt with by the Central Election Commission.

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Follow the story on Twitter:

• http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23pman
  
• Most cited tweets by Mihai Moscovici

Check the Moldovan site Unimedia with live information, videos, and photo material.

• A live stream by the Romanian TV

Some video footage from Chisinau:

• http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=64179594583&ref=nf
  
• Incredible 75 minutes video from the protests, morning hours of 7 April
  
• and here the continuation of the video in the afternoon (77 minutes).

Violence:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9676ubIVwc
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ar6c_n0PUE
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a2RKyCdL78 (pictures in front of Parliament building and at the Presidents's palace; "Jos Communisti" means "Down with the communists")
  

Video of presidential palace destruction: http://www.cyberculture.ro/blog/2009/04/07/video-proteste-la-chisinau/

Photos:
zzzop
Vladimir Plamadeala
On livejournal
Fire in the Parliament (unimedia)
During the morning (unimedia)
On Moldovarious.com
Benia on livejournal

Other blogs:
Nicu Popescu
INconstantIN
Scraps of Moscow
Kosmopolito
On the "Twitter Revolution"
Dumitru arguing against nationalistic tendencies

Statements:
EU Council expresses concerns (PDF)
OSCE in Moldova condemns violence
Council of Europe asks for dialogue
President Voronin calls actions a "putsch"