A group if investigative journalists will monitor, based on integrity indicators, the lists of candidates presented by parties with chances of entering the future Parliament and potential candidates of parties or independent candidates in the national and single-member constituencies. The measures will be implemented as part of the civic initiative “For a Clean Parliament 2018” that was launched by four NGOs on July 13, IPN reports.
The four organizations are: the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, the Association of Independent Press (API), the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC) and the Journalistic Investigations Center (CIJM). The monitoring will be based on four criteria, namely integrity in political activity, integrity in managing the personal property and interests, integrity in fulfilling the public or party duties and the records of punishment.
The NGOs also aim to promote the informed and conscious vote of the citizens in the upcoming parliamentary elections and the principle of integrity of persons with public posts, and to ensure broader informing of the citizens with the right to vote in Moldova about the candidates for MP. About 450 potential candidates will be monitored in the pre-electoral period. As a result, about 250 profiles of candidates from party lists and of independents will be formulated in the electoral period.
API executive director Petru Macovei said it is the right of citizens to know the persons for whom they will vote in the future elections. “The members of Moldova’s Parliament should deserve this post and should work for the benefit of the people, not of groups of interests. Many of the persons who were promoted to public posts, in the Government, Parliament and other bodies often didn’t meet the expectations,” he stated.
CIJM head Cornelia Cozonac noted it is very important for civil society to inform the citizens so that these vote correctly. “We hope we will have enough power and capacities to document all the candidates who aspire for public posts so that we see how upright they are and what their sins are,” she stated.
The NGOs that founded the civic initiative “For a Clean Parliament” carried out similar candidate monitoring activities in the parliamentary elections of 2009, 2010 and 2014.
