Seven of the nine members of the Central Election Commission are representatives of the ruling party, appointed by various institutions, which determines a feeling of distrust of the current composition of the CEC, PSDE secretary general Iurie Cazacu stated in a public debate entitled “What safeguards are needed against election fraud?”. According to him, the new Electoral Code disfavors the representatives of the opposition as the right of competitors to have both representatives and observers in electoral offices was annulled.
Iurie Cazacu said that he is skeptical about the impartiality of the members of the Central Election Commission given that most of the CEC members are appointed by the PAS government and most of the CEC members have no experience in the electoral field and no public visibility.
“Society and some of the political actors have distrust of the current composition of the Central Election Commission. Of the nine current members of the CEC, seven are representatives of the ruling party, appointed by the presidential institution, the Government, the parliamentary majority. Personally, I have nothing against any CEC member, but I would prefer that the CEC should include persons known through their previous activities, either as a member of a lower electoral body or as a representative of an electoral competitor at the CEC. We had such practices previously. Now, without any criticism for the sake of criticism, most of the CEC members are absolutely new people for public opinion. A new CEC member was appointed last week. I tried to find out what experience he has in the electoral field – zero. Moreover, competent persons from the CEC composition, such as the ex-CEC secretary, are resigning,” said the secretary general of the European Social Democratic Party.
Iurie Cazacu expressed his discontent with the fact that the new version of the Electoral Code makes the position of head of district electoral council permanent and stipulates the necessity of holing a public competition to fill this position According to the representative of the PSDE, people loyal to the government are most of the times appointed to the position of head of the second-level electoral body.
“The second-level electoral bodies are the district councils. The amendment to the electoral legislation adopted last year made the position of head of the second-level district electoral council permanent. Previously, the chairpersons of the district electoral councils were elected only for the electoral period. Now the CEC has organized public competitions to fill the position of head of the second-level electoral body. I have no doubt that all the heads of second-level electoral bodies were appointed strictly according to political criteria by the current composition of the CEC,” said the PSDE secretary general.
Iurie Cazacu also said that the electoral contestants’ right to monitor the smooth running of elections was limited as they now cannot have both representatives and observers in electoral offices.
“Under the old Electoral Code, electoral contestants had the right to appoint observers and representatives in electoral bodies. By the new wording of the Electoral Code, the right to have observers was annulled. Political parties will no longer have observers, but only representatives. What was the problem when electoral contestants had the right to name both observers and representatives? A party with national coverage could appoint both observers and representatives. Why is this a problem? We know that each electoral office provides a mobile ballot box on election day. Usually, either the representative or the observer accompanied the mobile ballot box. The other one remained at the place and monitored the work of the office. Now the electoral contestant is put in the situation to either ensure the monitoring of the mobile ballot box, with the electoral bureau remaining unsupervised, or vice versa,” explained Iurie Cazacu.
The public debate entitled “What safeguards are needed against election fraud?” was the 309th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates”, which is implemented with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
