Democratic Party campaign manager Vlad Cebotari has accused the co-presidents of the electoral bloc NOW of election day violations. In particular, Andrei Năstase is accused of engaging in campaigning inside the polling station where he voted, and Maia Sandu of campaigning against the concurrent referendum without having the formal right to do so.

“Neither the electoral bloc NOW nor Maia Sandu officially registered as electoral competitors with an option against the referendum. Therefore any campaigning in public in this regard is an act that violates at least the existing normative framework”, Cebotari told a press briefing.

As concerns Năstase’s alleged violation, Cebotari said a number of media outlets reported it. “We call on those media organizations to refrain from being partners in such illegal activities”, said the Democratic campaign manager.

Another complaint made by the Democratic Party concerned an NGO that allegedly put pressure on members of some electoral bureaus so that they would not offer the referendum-related ballots to voters.

Cebotari stated such violations are unacceptable and should be punished.

The Democratic campaign manager further called on participants to “leave aggressive discourses and hate speech aside”. “We have noted that aggressive discourses led to some minor incidents such as vandalized election signage. What’s more serious, a shop belonging to the vice president of a Democratic local organization has had its windows stoned. This we think is a direct result of the the hate speech propagated by certain electoral competitors”.

Today Moldova holds legislative elections based on a new, mixed voting system as well as a non-binding referendum proposed by the governing Democratic Party on the reduction of seats in Parliament and the introduction of what essentially amounts to an imperative mandate.