The voters were presented with a wide choice of candidates, however the legal framework for elections requires to be revised, taking into account international standards, in order to provide equal playing field for all candidates, especially for inclusion of independent ones, considers the Election Observation Mission (EOM) of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO).
“Currently, the legislation leaves space for preferential conditions for candidates nominated by political parties with regard to campaign finances; as well as with regard to conflicting deadlines for candidate registration and start of the campaign, which led to a situation in which some candidates started campaigning ahead of others,” Head of Mission Peter Novotny said in a news conference at IPN.
According to Peter Novotny, the Electoral Code still lacks clarity or regulation on various aspects of the candidate campaign finance. The Central Election Commission applied the sanctions for campaign violations inconsistently and its decisions lacked sufficient legal reasoning on imposing one or other sanction. In addition, the CEC had no sufficient funds and human resources to verify the campaign finance properly.
On Election Day, ENEMO EOM deployed ten teams of short-term observers covering opening of polling stations, process of casting the ballots, environment around polling stations, closing of polling stations, vote count, as well as transfer and intake of the materials and tabulation at district electoral councils, to assess compliance with national legislation and international standards.
The EOM will defer its final assessment of the entire election process until the end of the process and issue a final report within 60 days from Election Day.
The Election Observation Mission of ENEMO for the Presidential Elections 2016 to Moldova is financially supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, within the Accountability Fund Program; and the Black Sea Trust, a Project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
