A number of 32 cases of abusive use of administrative resources, most of them involving the PAS and Maia Sandu (PAS), were detected by Promo-LEX observers between September 18 and October 1. The deviations are stipulated in the third report of the mission that oversees the presidential election and the campaign for the national constitutional referendum of October 20. Among other irregularities reported during the mentioned period are the organized transportation of voters to electoral events, the involvement of religious denominations and the corruption of voters.
According to Promo-LEX Association, there were alleged acts of intimidation of competitors and cases in which the citizens were offered goods and food by “Victory” Political Bloc in exchange for participation in electoral events. Two PCRM representatives were detained while distributing flyers with the option “No” to the referendum, which were confiscated without clear explanations, while Irina Vlah was barred from accessing a campaign location by the police.
During the first ten days of the election campaign, Promo-LEX observed at least 792 activities to promote election contestants and the constitutional referendum. Most of the activities were organized by the PAS and Maia Sandu, followed by Alexandr Stoianoglo (PSRM) and Renato Usatyi. Chisinau was the city that hosted the most events (16%), followed by Balti and other regions. The Renaissance Party and “Victory” Bloc promoted electoral meetings in closed channels and stimulated the organization of anti-referendum/anti-EU protests by remunerating the participants.
The incomes reported by the candidates in the presidential election, between September 20-30, totaled almost 13 million lei. Most of the money came from the funds of political parties. Maia Sandu, Alexandr Stoianoglo and Renato Usatyi are the candidates who reported 89% of the total incomes. In the case of the referendum, only the PAS reported revenues, which came from allocations from the state budget and donations.
The reported expenses totaled over 8.3 million lei, of which 90% were declared by three candidates – Maia Sandu, Renato Usatyi and Alexandr Stoianoglo. The largest expenses were for promotional materials and for the production and broadcasting of advertising spots. In the context of the referendum, the PAS declared expenses of over 1.2 million lei, especially for promotional materials and organization of electoral activities.
For the presidential campaign, the unreported expenses were estimated at over 2.2 million lei, the highest amount being intended for promotional materials (88%). In the context of the constitutional referendum, the unreported expenses amounted to over 1.1 million lei. The referendum campaigners, for whom these expenses were estimated, are PR/BP “Victory”, the PCRM, PAS and MAN.
At least 14 cases of hate speech were observed during the reported period and most of them were in a political or electoral context. Among them, six cases were directly related to the election. The Promo-LEX observers also identified manifestations of discrimination through negative associations between politicians and mental health problems, as well as sexist and homophobic messages.
