November 14 (SeeNews) - The newly elected president of Moldova, Socialist leader Igor Dodon, must respect all of the country's internal and external commitments regarding human rights, the local unit of non-governmental organisation Amnesty International said on Monday.
"The president elect has caused serious concern on several issues during the election campaign [...] regarding Moldova's commitments to respect human rights. Now, he must give up those statements and commit to the obligations of the Republic of Moldova, both internal and external, regarding human rights," Amnesty International Moldova said in a press release.
Dodon, leader of Moldova's Socialist Party (PSRM), received 52.18% of the votes in Sunday's presidential elections, while Maia Sandu, leader of the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), got 47.82%, official data based on 100% of the ballots counted showed on Monday.
"During the campaign, Moldovan citizens witnessed disturbing, at times even poisonous, rhetoric. This rhetoric cannot and should not become government policy," the organisation commented, adding that sexist and xenophobic comments and other types of hate speech are inadmissible for a state leader.
Amnesty International is a non-governmental organisation focused on human rights with over 7 million members and supporters around the world.
Moldova held its first direct presidential elections in 16 years after in March the Constitutional Court ruled that the president will be elected by popular vote. Since 2000, Moldova's president had been elected for a four-year term by a majority of 60% of the MPs in the 101-seat parliament.
The tiny landlocked ex-Soviet state of some 3 million people has strong historical and political ties with its western neighbour Romania, with more than 75% of the population speaking Romanian. However, some 10% of the population living predominantly in the internationally unrecognised separatist republic of Transnistria, which broke away from Moldova in the 1990s, speak Russian and identify themselves as Russians.
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