In the program “Truth live” of July 23, 2018, the leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” (PAS) Maia Sandu shared her concerns about the counterdemonstrations organized by the Shor Party (PS) against the opposition’s protests. According to the PAS leader, Ilan Shor’s party is a tool of the government through which this tries to minimize the effects of protests, to divert attention and to compromise the opposition’s actions. What Missis Sandu says can be true, but the counterdemonstrations staged by the PS are an occasion for involving the competent bodies in clarifying the activity of Ilan Shor’s party so as to prove that this is really a tool of the government.
Surely, the supporters of the PAS should make energetic efforts to emphasize the propagandistic mystification that opposition parties have the power to somehow jeopardize the activity of the ‘social stores’. But nobody hampers the supporters of the PAS to inform themselves from official documents of the PS about this party’s statutory objectives based on which the Shor Party was registered with the Ministry of Justice, and the declared activities and projects, and to act correspondingly. Article 17 of the law on parties says the parties work to realize their political will that is stated in their statutes and programs registered in the required way, in accordance with the law. This can be useful to show that the PS’s activity runs counter to the mentioned legal provisions.
According to the official website of the PS, one of the party’s main activities is to implement the project ‘social stores’ that were created to support the socially deprived categories of society. Their services can be used by pensioners, veterans, persons with special needs and people in need... We plan to open over 100 stores during the next two years. So, it is explicit recognition of the fact that the social stores that perform commercial activity belong to the Shor Party. They work under the symbols of the Shor Party, these being also imprinted on the cards used by the beneficiaries, who are eventual voters. At the same time, Chapter VI of the law on parties specifies what property the parties can own and what activities these can carry out. The program and statutes of the Shor Party do not refer to activities similar to that of the ‘social stores’. On the other hand, it is well known that the limited liability company “Magazine Sociale” ( “Social Stores”) was founded by the public association “Pentru Orhei” (“For Orhei”).
Consequently, we can conclude that it is either evident mystification or camouflaged provision of services and other benefits and there are many questions to the competent bodies as to the commercial activity of the PS.
The necessary instruments exist. Article 1 of the law on parties clearly says that these are voluntary associations, with the status of legal entity, of citizens of the Republic of Moldova with the right to vote that, by common activities and based on the principle of free participation, contribute to the formulation, expression and realization of their political will. The citizens with the right to vote are voters, while Article 181’ of the Penal Code, entitled Corruption of voters, provides that the corruption of voters takes place by: Offering or giving of money, goods, services or any other benefits for making the voters exercise their electoral rights in a particular way in the parliamentary and local elections or in referendums. These provisions do not refer only to election campaigns as electoral agitation necessarily includes not only what the parties promise to do and what they did in the periods between elections. While the PS, since October 2016 until now, through the agency of ‘social stores’, attracted several thousand loyal supporters who were shown to the public in the so-called counterdemonstrations.
This is not all. There is also Article 181” of the Penal Code, entitled Illegal financing of political parties or election campaigns, violation of the way of using the financial resources of political parties or electoral funds. This article could be instantaneously applied as the financial part of the activity of the ‘social stores’ that is described in detail on the PS’s website is not reflected in the financial reports presented to the Central Election Commission. So, the supporters of the PAS have space for maneuvering and counteracting the activity of the PS. Really, why shouldn’t they try to alter the high spirits of Merry-Shor? Furthermore, they could convince themselves, based on concrete actions, if Merry-Shor is or not the tool of the government.
IPN experts
P.S. “Merry-Shor” in English means “joyful Shor” or even “happy Shor”.
