CEC drafting guidelines on election-related appeals

The Central Election Commission (CEC) is currently working on a new set of rules on hearing election-related appeals and claims, whose draft is to be examined at CEC's meeting next Tuesday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Because CEC has no authority to sanction violations during campaigns, the new regulation will attribute this power to the law enforcement bodies and other governmental agencies – the Prosecutor General's Office, the Police, the Broadcasting Coordination Council, etc. In particular, violations occurring in mass media will be punished by the broadcasting authorities, while violations like the destruction of outdoor electoral advertising will be sanctioned by the police or prosecutors. For a claim to be examined by CEC and then forwarded to relevant bodies, evidence will be requested from the electoral actors filing the complaint. “The CEC will not collect such evidence and will not be obliged to prove it; we'll just decide whether to pass the appeals on to relevant bodies based on the presented evidence”, said CEC member CEC Pavel Midrigan. At its meeting on Friday, June 19, the CEC is to examine the regulation on media coverage of the election campaign.