The Democratic Party (PDM) said it decided to send its analysis of the two 2019 parliamentary election monitoring reports issued by Promo-LEX Association so far to the diplomatic corps in the country, OSCE observers and direct backers of the association (USAID, Soros Foundation, Council of Europe and British Embassy in Chisinau), IPN reports.
“We consider these two reports by Promo-LEX, of November 2018 and January 2019, contain incorrect, unverified and truncated information and this leads to the conclusion that the election monitoring activity conducted by Promo-LEX is not at all objective. Analyzing the reports compiled by Promo-LEX, we established that there is a clear methodology according to which the election monitoring mission is carried out. These reports include unsupported conclusions based only on the personal opinions of the report authors and a set of conclusions that go beyond the monitoring mission framework,” the PDM says in a press release.
The party challenges a number of assertions inserted in Promo-LEX’s reports, such as that a number of MPs were corrupted or intimidated. According to the PDM, there is no evidence to support such an assertion that is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution. There is also the assertion that the mixed electoral system is not appropriate and a number of recommendations of the Venice Commission weren’t implemented in the electoral legislation. The opinion about the new electoral system is strictly subjective and is related to the political bias of Promo-LEX as the absolute majority of the technical-legal recommendations of the Venice Commission were integrated into the legislation.
The Democrats also make reference to the exclusion of the ban on electoral agitation on the election day, saying namely Promo-LEX formulated such a recommendation in the past and it is thus not clear why this organization changed its position. As to the suspicions about the non-issuing of integrity certificates by the National Integrity Authority, the PDM says Promo-LEX didn’t try to communicate institutionally with the Authority on the issue. The process has been smooth until now and over 700 certificates have been already issued.
The party notes it is open to any election monitoring mission, but considers it is essential to respect the professionalism and objectivity standards. “The PDM will continue to combat any false and manipulative information distributed by Promo-LEX or other organizations in the election monitoring process. We want the monitoring of the electoral process to be objective and impartial and the Moldovan citizens and the foreign partners of Moldova to be correctly informed about the preparation of the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019,” runs the press release.
