The Chance Party’s candidates for posts of mayor and councilor in a number of localities of the country could be excluded from the electoral competition after the Central Election Commission (CEC) ascertained campaign funding violations, cases of voter corruption, passing of the ceiling of the electoral fund and use of undeclared funds. The decisions on the elimination from the competition are to be taken by district electoral councils by November 1, IPN reports.

CEC deputy chairman Pavel Postica in Monday’s meeting of the Commission said that they were informed about dubious activities of members of the Chance Party, former members of the outlawed Shor Party, by the Security and Intelligence Service and the General Police Inspectorate. Some of the activities were aimed at legalizing sums of money on the pretext of implementing particular projects requested by locals from a number of villages and towns, who put their signatures and offered personal data. There were also presented cases of detection of lots of electoral and advertising material, textile, stationery and other products that didn’t have the required documents.

In the same meeting, the lawyer for the Chance Party Elena Organ said that she didn’t see any evidence or argument to prove the illegalities that were allegedly committed by the Shor Party. As regards the collection of personal data, there are institutions responsible for counteracting the collection of personal data against the person’s will. The initiative projects, such as the Moldovan Village, are presented as criminal or illegal in the absence of a court decision showing this.

Later, Pavel Postica mentioned a series of documents, statements, publications and findings showing the ties of the Chance Party and its representatives with Ilan Shor and the connection with projects and sponsorships coming from Shor. He noted that when projects are presented, former members of the outlawed party are always present there to transfer image and the voters are offered direct financial concessions in the form of social assistance or indirect services, such as street repair. The legal origin of this money hasn’t been confirmed.

Given the identified violations of the Electoral Code, the CEC penalized the Chance Party by stripping it of state budget allowances for a period of a year (January 1 – December 31, 2024), and obliged the district electoral councils to consider annulling the registration of the Chance Party’s candidates for mayor and councilor by November 1, 4pm.