CEC important, but without power
https://www.ipn.md/en/cec-important-but-without-power-7965_986307.html
The Central Election Commission (CEC) must be informed beforehand about all of the opinion polls that are to be made known, but it cannot penalize the organization that publishes such data, the Commission’s secretary Iurie Ciocan said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Thus, those who consider their rights were violated by the CBS-AXA’s poll can appeal to the court. Under the Election Code, the CEC can only warn the election contenders over the violation of the electoral legislation.
The statements were made in the context of the complaint submitted Friday by the election contender Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) to the Central Election Commission, over the poll presented by CBS-AXA one day earlier. Iurie Ciocan said the Center for Sociological Investigations and Marketing CBS-AXA informed verbally the CEC and invited members of the Commission to the news conference where the poll was to be presented, but the Commission’s secretariat received no advance notification.
In a communiqué, the CEC says Article 64 of the Election Code provides that any opinion poll on voters’ electoral preferences can be carried out only after informing the central electoral authority about it. During the presentation of the poll results, there must be provided the following information: the name of the organization that conducted the poll; the period of time covered by it and method used; the size of the sample and margin of sampling error; the person/organization that commissioned the poll and how it was financed.
On November 5, the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) submitted an application to the Central Election Commission, asking penalizing and counteracting the actions of CBS-AXA and obliging it to deny the data of the poll presented on November 4. The party argued that according to its preliminary investigations, the poll was commissioned by a phantom company.
In a televised program on Friday evening, CBS-AXA director Ion Jigau could not clearly say who commissioned the poll.
The party’s application is to be examined within five days.
