The intimidation of candidates and potential candidates in the pre-electoral and electoral processes, including through prosecution threats, is one of the main observations made by the pre-electoral assessment mission of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) based in Washington DC in view of the parliamentary elections that will take place in the Republic of Moldova on February 24, 2019. The members of the delegation formulated the conclusions as a result of the meetings they had in Chisinau with government and election officials, groups of national and international observers, and representatives of civil society, the media, the international community, and government.
In a news conference at IPN, Michael Carpenter, senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, said the necessity of ensuring the independence of the judiciary is another aspect mentioned by most of the interlocutors of the delegation, especially in light of the events of June 2018, when the local elections in Chisinau weren’t validated. A part of the interlocutors complained about the use of administrative resources that could incline the electoral process to a particular direction. “As regards the information environment, even if this can be characterized as pluralistic, it does not offer all the players equal opportunities. In this connection, concerns were stated about misinformation online and possible difficulties in the process of registering candidates and in ensuring the right to vote, especially for voters abroad,” he stated.
Michael Carpenter also underlined positive findings, namely that a large number of parties in Moldova stipulated the promotion of women in politics in internal documents. At the same time, in the discussions with representatives of the Central Election Commission, it was ascertained a high level of technical preparation. It is recommended that intimidation should be excluded from a genuine electoral process. This applies to candidates, parties and journalists, to representatives of civil society, etc. It was also noticed a very competitive environment before the parliamentary elections. The goal of the mission was not necessarily to assess the integrity of the electoral process, but rather to identify areas with potential vulnerability.
In the same news conference, Laura Jewett, NDI regional director for Eurasia, said the mission hopes all the candidates who will run or will intend to run in elections will have equitable access to registration and campaign procedures and will be able to benefit from the won seat.
Funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, the NDI pre-election assessment mission for the February 24, 2019 parliamentary elections will be in Moldova December 12-15. The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan nongovernmental organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.
