Starting with the parliamentary elections of 2014, since Promo-LEX’s Mission has monitored the elections, the presidential elections of 2020 turned out to be the most non-transparent ones. The undeclared costs noticed by the Mission members represented about 39%, IPN reports.
In a post-electoral analysis conference, the head of the Promo-LEX Election Observation Mission Pavel Postica said the central electoral authority does not have technical and human capacities to perform such checks. Most often, the costs incurred for the human personnel involved in the campaign, such as volunteers and agitators, are not declared. There were also cases of non-declaring of costs associated with transport, communications and advertising, especially on social networking sites.
Secretary of the Central Election Commission Maxim Lebedinschi said the subject of election campaign financing remains a sensitive one for society as the transparency of election contenders’ funds is crucial in obtaining and maintaining the people’s confidence in politics. “The ensuring of equal conditions in the financing of the election campaign and the counteracting of hidden financing or financing higher than the allowed limit is a key element for ensuring equity in the electoral process. Therefore, the lawmakers instituted financing rules, caps on donations, the compulsoriness of reporting and declaring in case of non-opening of an account intended for initiative groups or the Electoral Fund. Nevertheless, the initiative groups or the electoral contenders continue to meet with different impediments, such as the banks’ refusal to open an account or the inability of political parties that designated candidates to donate own funds for supporting the candidate,” said the functionary.
Attending the online event, Artur Mija, the treasurer of Maia Sandu, who was the PAS candidate in the presidential elections of 2020, said that as Moldova tends to be an open, transparent and legal society, the idea of switching over to financing through transfers should be considered. This way the money will enter the financial system and its origin could be determined. This is impossible in case of donations in cash. The PAS will submit a relevant legislative proposal and such practices should be encouraged.
On February 18-19, the Central Election Commission, with the Council of Europe’s support, has held the post-electoral analysis conference titled “Presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova 2020: analysis, conclusions, recommendations and steps to be followed”. The event involves representatives of the central and local public authorities and of political parties, electoral experts, national and international observers who oversaw the presidential elections, electoral functionaries and representatives of civil society.
