CoE CLRA President concerned about situation in Chisinau

23.06.2018 06:15
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In reaction to the decision by the Chisinau Appeals Court, to uphold the non-validation of the mayoral elections recently held in the capital city of the Republic of Moldova, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Gudrun Mosler-Törnström, expressed serious concern about the latest post-electoral developments in Chisinau, IPN reports, with reference to a press release of the Council of Europe.

“Transparency, impartiality and independency are integral parts of the European democratic heritage. This includes all phases of the electoral process including post-electoral decisions. Respect for the results of genuine elections is of primordial importance for democratic stability of a country and of Europe as a whole. The decision of the Chisinau City Court not to validate the result of the ballot held on 3 June 2018 and the rejection of the appeal lodged by Mr Andrei Nastase, who emerged as the winner of this run-off vote, by the Chisinau Appeals Court, raises many issues, in particular related to these core values of the European electoral and democratic tradition,” the Congress President stated.

“The Congress observed the early local elections held on 20 May in Chisinau, Balti and five other localities and found them in line with democratic standards, overall. The non-validation of the result of the mayoral run-off held on 3 June in Chisinau came as a surprise and raised questions with regard to transparency and proportionality. The reports about the courts’ decisions is a worrying sign for us in the Congress, considering the difficult situation of local democracy which Chisinau has been facing now over a too long period,” Gudrun Mosler-Törnström concluded.

This new situation and the draft Information Report on the early local elections held on 20 May 2018 in seven localities including Chisinau and Balti, Republic of Moldova, will be discussed at the Monitoring Meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to be held on 28 June 2018 in Büyükcekmece (Istanbul, Turkey), it is said in the press release.