Even though the number of campaign activities before the second round of local elections has reduced, some potential campaign violations been detected, such as voter bribery, use of administrative resources, claiming merit for projects implemented with public funds and use of public functions for the promotion of candidates. Additionally, there is reasonable suspicion regarding several cases of artificial citizen migration at the general local elections of October 20, 2019. These conclusions are included in the 6th Report the Promo-LEX Observation Mission of general local and new parliamentary elections of October 20 and November 3, 2019.
At an IPN press conference, the head of the Mission, Pavel Postica, said that most candidates who compete in the second round of mayoral elections, in 384 constituencies, have been nominated by the Socialist Party - 179 candidates, followed by the Democratic Party - 176 candidates and the Electoral Bloc ACUM - 169. In terms of direct confrontation, 63 PSRM and PDM candidates duel each other, followed by 57 duels between PDM and ACUM bloc candidates, while there are 48 competitions between PSRM and ACUM bloc candidates.
The Mission identified at least four cases of potential voter bribery that involved PDM candidates. Road repairs, food, money and clothing items were allegedly offered by the candidates. Four cases of potential use of administrative resources involved the PDM (1) and ACUM (2), when three electoral meetings were held in state institutions during working hours, while the fourth case involved ACUM using a public function in order to promote a candidate. Other campaign activities that might qualify as campaign violations refer to: taking credit for projects implemented with public money (3 cases - PSRM); promoting candidates by using image transfer from personalities from abroad (3 - NOW); and use of electoral advertising in violation of legal provisions (15).
The report indicates that, starting with October 3, 2019, the Central Electoral Commission did not publish the complaints and notifications on its official website, which made it difficult for both the Mission and for the general public to analyze the submitted appeals and issued solutions. Electoral councils and the electoral bureaus also had their share of potential violations. 19% of CECE I and 31% of the BESV visited by the Promo-LEX observers were closed during working hours.
Moreover, the Observation Mission warns of delays related to the examination procedures of recount requests, the lack of clear legal provisions regarding when and how a recount request can be admitted, as well as delays in vote recount, which, according to observers, may affect the smooth running of the second round of general local elections.
