A presidential election and a constitutional referendum on joining the European Union will be held in the Republic of Moldova on October 20. The Republic of Moldova must now and in the future provide guarantees for the holding of free and fair elections, which are the basis for a democratic and prosperous society. Statements about the “intention of particular forces” to rig the next elections have recently appeared in the public space. What the basis of such statements is, but also how secure the legal and administrative guarantees against fraud are in general and what still needs to be done until the next election and the referendum to prevent fraud were among the issues discussed by the experts invited to IPN’s public debate “What safeguards are needed against election fraud?”.
The permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan said that the elections are a common procedure of participation of citizens in politics, through which the citizens vote to elect their representatives in the eligible bodies of the state – Parliament, the President’s Office, the local public administration. “In our country, a voter, according to the Constitution and the Election Code, is any citizen who turns 18. According to the basic concept of the Republic of Moldova, the voters register passively. That is, when the age of 18 is reached, the name of the citizen of the Republic of Moldova is introduced into the Electronic Register of Voters and the citizen becomes a voter,” explained the expert.
According to him, the will of the people is the basis of state power. Article 38 of the Constitution provides that this will is expressed through free elections, which are held periodically by secret ballot, by universal, equal, direct, and free suffrage. At the same time, election fraud is the illegal intervention in an election. The Criminal and Administrative Codes stipulate penalties in this regard. Chapter V of the Criminal Code covers also the crimes against the political rights of citizens. Respectively, Chapter IV of the Contravention Code is dedicated to contraventions that violate the political rights of citizens.
Igor Boțan said that the Central Election Commission is the institution empowered to ensure the unhindered exercise by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova of the constitutional right to vote and to stand as a candidate at free fair elections, including by ensuring compliance with the legislation on the financing of political parties and election campaigns, is the. In exercising its powers, the Commission is guided by the principles of impartiality and political neutrality, has organizational, functional, operational and financial independence, according to the provisions of the Electoral Code.
MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity Igor Chiriac said that an electoral process is an exercise that is the basis of the democracy of each country. It is an exercise that ensures the right of the people to express their will – who they want to lead them further - or, when it comes to a referendum, their position on a subject of national importance. “In this case, it is very important that the elections be fair, free because only in such conditions can the citizens trust this electoral exercise and be convinced that what they said in the voting booth is essentially the result of the electoral exercise, the result of the voting process,” stated the MP.
In his opinion, assessing the quality of the electoral process is the most correct thing that the citizens can do. “But I think that, in general, the Republic of Moldova is in a good situation as regards the preparedness for elections. We have normative acts that ensure the democratic electoral process. We have electoral institutions that ensure these processes. And I hope that all these electoral exercises, all these procedures that will take place in the autumn of this year – the presidential election, the constitutional referendum on the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union – will be carried out in a democratic, free and fair manner,” said Igor Chiriac.
According to him, distorted information about the upcoming electoral exercises has been lately distributed in the public space. Attempts are made to communicate distorted information in order to mislead society. “It is a subject of national importance. The people are interested in these processes. And it is very important that the elections should be free and fair, and the people trust the way the electoral process was conducted,” stated the MP.
Secretary general of the European Social Democratic Party Iurie Cazacu said that he is the follower of the theory that elections are rigged not on the day of the actual elections, but long before. An electoral process is primarily related to the credibility of the electoral authorities, namely the Central Election Commission as the supreme body that organizes and conducts elections. And it matters enormously how this credibility is perceived by the voters.
“My personal opinion, and also the opinion of most of my mates in the political team I represent, is that at the current stage we can talk about misperceptions of the electoral bodies. We are at a phase when there are suspicions of fraud in the electoral exercises that will take place this autumn. I know and we all know that broadly speaking, practically in all electoral and pre-electoral campaigns, the parties, especially the opposition, whether parliamentary or extra-parliamentary, level criticism at the electoral bodies. And this has been done practically since the declaring of Independence. All the parties that were in opposition at a certain stage said that the electoral body, the CEC, or the ruling party “are plotting something,” stated Iurie Cazacu.
He believes that, generally, in the Republic of Moldova the elections so far have been free and fair, despite other reports by observation missions, which said that the elections were partly fair, partly free. “However, since Independence we can say that we have survived this exam of democratic or civilized countries. During this period, this suspicion of the opposition parties has not disappeared. On the contrary, the suspicion of election fraud or the intention to rig the electoral processes that will follow has increased,” said the PSDE secretary general.
Representatives of the Party of Socialists, a parliamentary opposition party, were also invited to the debate. They initially confirmed their participation, but later unformed that they cannot come.
The public debate entitled “What safeguards are needed against election fraud?” was the 309th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates”, which is implemented with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
