The Central Election Commission (CEC) over the last few years made progress in strengthening its financial independence and in increasing its capacities for training electoral functionaries. However, the people’s confidence in free and fair elections is low. Such a conclusion was reached by experts of Transparency International (TI) Moldova, who assessed a number of institutions of the National Integrity System within a project implemented in five Eastern Partnership countries.  

In a news conference at IPN, TI expert Mariana Kalughin said the authorities do not have capacities to organize free elections and to prevent election rigging. The members of the CEC are named by Parliament according to the criterion of proportionality of political parties. This makes the institution to be a politicized one. “We propose adopting a legal framework that would provide that the CEC members should be named by contest. They must be also trained in anticorruption matters,” she stated.

The expert underlined that the problems faced by the Central Election Commission are related to the reduced capacity to prevent election rigging and the inappropriate equipment of the local electoral offices. The norms concerning the conduct and integrity of the CEC members are defective, while the mechanisms for ensuring their integrity are insufficient.

In this connection, Transparency International Moldova put forward a number of suggestions, including selecting the members of the central electoral authority at a transparent contest, improving the mechanism for reporting by the CEC to Parliament and working out and implementing a mechanism for ensuring the integrity of the CEC members. The legislation should be amended to so as ensure the swifter examination of the violations of the electoral legislation, especially in the pre-electoral and electoral periods.

Transparency International Moldova appraised the institutions of the National Integrity System within the National Integrity System Assessments in European Neighborhood East Region Project that is supported by the European Commission.