Representatives of civil society who formed an initiative group for Eurovision Junior Song Contest, said that the regulations of the national pre-selection in Moldova were violated, while the process of choosing the winner is not transparent. In a news conference at IPN, they accused the jury of lack of objectivism.

Mircea Manzarari, of the initiative group, said the participants in the contest haven’t been announced about the pre-selection of last year beforehand. Thus, only six children took part in it. “We have a number of objections as regards the organization of this contest. The regulations say that the participant is selected based on televoting and the jury’s decision. They neglected this fact and picked without taking the televoting into account,” she stated.

According to her, such a contest must be announced several months beforehand, while the pre-selection must be held in a public place, not in a small office, without viewers and with members of the jury who are not musicians. “There is no expenditure estimate. The private financing and the amounts allocated from the state budget for holding the contest haven’t been made public,” said Mircea Manzarari.

Iulia Braga, parent of a five-year-old child who took part in the last year’s pre-selection, said he jury’s decision was announced in 5 minutes. “We didn’t even realize when the contest closed and the results were announced,” she said, adding that the televoting was ignored even if the regulations say that 50% of the points represent the results of the televoting.

People’s Artist Vasile Morosanu said the winner of the pre-selection must be chosen by the general public, not based on the narrow interests of the jury members. There are talented children in Moldova who would definitely win such international contests if they were offered the possibility of taking part.

The 2012 Eurovision Junior Song Contest was held in Amsterdam on December 1. So far Moldova has taken part in three such contests.