The election campaign prior to the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 starts on January 25 only, but some of the representatives of political parties already started to campaign. Three were also identified the first cases of use of administrative resources and corruption of voters, shows the first report of the election observation mission presented by “Promo-LEX” Association on December 20, IPN reports.
In a news conference, Pavel Postica, “Promo-LEX” programs director, said the ruling party has massively used administrative resources, especially in the recent period. It is mainly about those decisions that were adopted at the party’s head office and implemented by the public authorities, which should be avoided in accordance with the international standards. Through the angle of these standards, there should be no confusion between parties and the state. The Party of Socialists is in a similar situation. It attributed to itself merits for implementing a number of projects in the municipality of Chisinau, which were actually carried out by the Chisinau Council with municipal funds. “Regrettably, the first cases that we consider can be classed as corruption of voters by providing material and non-material advantages and electoral presents appeared. There were identified two such cases and they both involve the Democratic Party of Moldova,” stated Pavel Postica.
As regards electoral agitation, the potential electoral contender ACUM started already to distribute electoral materials and this fact was ascertained by observers when this entity hasn’t been officially registered. There were identified a number of cases when potential election runners announced de facto the beginning of their election campaign, but de jure the period for registering candidates hasn’t yet started. The Party of Socialists nominated and presented its candidates in almost all the single-member constituencies. The Shor Party, immediately after the election date was announced, created the so-called institution of the party’s representative at the local level that coincides with the map of electoral constituencies. These representatives are promoted at the local level by different public activities, including social ones, stated Pavel Postica.
He also referred to the state register of voters that continues to expand. It is inexplicable how this happens when a lot of people leave the country and even renounce the nationality and the natural growth in 2000 was already negative. Over 50,000 voters haven’t had a domicile or residence since September 2017 and this is worrisome as they together form practically an electoral constituency. This can limit their right to elect, at least in single-member constituencies.
The next report of the observation mission will be presented on January 10, 2019 and the next reports each two weeks.
