The elections are massively rigged not in polling places. Minor tricks or stratagems can be used, but they cannot influence the election outcome, considers expert Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT. He stated his opinion in the public debate “Framework for regulating and ensuring 2014 parliamentary elections: guarantees, innovations, challenges and dangers” that was staged by IPN News Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.
Igor Botan explained that free and fair elections are a recognized phrase that combines a number of criteria. “Free elections mean that the active and passive people with the right to vote are not hindered in any way to take part in the elections either as voters or as candidates. This phrase also refers to the conditions stipulated in the legislation and to the notion of integrity of the electoral process that combines all the factors and criteria for the challenges not to affect the final results, more exactly for the people to have the impression that their will is reflected in the final results,” he stated.
He also said that Moldova has held elections for 20 years and these elections were mainly qualified as free and fair. “In the polling places, they do not massively rig the elections as there are control mechanisms there. Anyone can come to the polling place to see that the procedures are correct. I do not rule out that they use stratagems, but they cannot change the final results. It’s a different thing when we speak about the financing of election campaigns and their promotion in the mass media. But we are those who allow illegal funding of election campaigns and illegal promotion,” stated Igor Botan.
He related that while on a working trip to Norway, he had a shock when he read their electoral law. “I told them that the law was weak and contained shortcomings and that the elections could be fixed. They told me that Norway is a nation of decent people who will not resort to something like this. In other countries, a person would feel offended if they were given a bottle of oil as a present. In our country, this bottle is accepted. Our people must be educated to feel offended if they are offered electoral presents. They have long talked about transparency in the mass media, but a consensus cannot be reached because there is no political will,” he said.
Igor Botan noted that the Moldovan politicians do not have political culture because they can promote themselves by concerts without accounting for the costs incurred. “The most serious thing is that the same methods are employed by those from power and those from the opposition. They stage now expensive concerts without giving a record of the spending. This is related to the political culture. They make use of the same mechanisms. It’s said. On the one hand, we have the accomplishments of the Central Election Commission, while on the other hand, we have what we have,” stated the expert.
In the same debate, Igor Botan spoke about the request of the Gagauz authorities to offer five seats of MP to representatives of the region. “There is a real problem in the case of parliamentary elections. They want to elect persons from Gagauzia, but we don’t know how to do this. The current Election Code allows electing people from Gagauzia. They should have demanded removing the electoral threshold for independent candidates. They can field their candidates and 100,000 people will have their representatives in Parliament. A benevolent dialogue is needed. Such an approach is much more useful and in accordance with the European course,” he said.
The public debate “Framework for regulating and ensuring 2014 parliamentary elections: guarantees, innovations, challenges and dangers” is the 32nd of the series of debates “Development of political culture in public debates” that are staged by IPN Agency with the support of the German foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
