The electoral period that precedes the parliamentary elections started on December 10. The program includes the informing of voters and the familiarization of electoral functionaries with the particularities of voting under the mixed electoral system and also the constitution of the inferior electoral bodies and the organization of their activity for the elections of February 24, 2019.

The nomination of candidates for the post of MP and their registration will start 60 days before the election day, while the election campaign starts 30 days before the election day.

Former Democrat MP Sergiu Sîrbu said the violations of the electoral legislation committed by the opposition parties are serious. In connection with these statements made on Prime TV channel, the  IPN Experts said the assessments of the PDM activist are very correct and are only to be applied uniformly in relation to all the political organizations, including the PDM. But what the ruling party PDM reproaches the opponents for?

In the case of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM), the reproach refers to the early nomination of candidates, which should have started 60 days before the election day, which is after December 24. Indeed the PSRM started to identify the candidates for single-member constituencies in September already and completed this process at the start of November. But the identification of candidates does not mean their nomination. The nomination will be made in accordance with the Election Code, after December 24, 2018, when the party formally changes, by the decisions of its administration bodies, the status of identified candidates into that of nominated candidates. Moreover, the PSRM could remind the PDM of the fact that it did nothing but undertake the PDM’s practice of 2014, of early identifying candidates by so-called primaries.

The most serious reproach to ACUM is that its leaders dared to inform public opinion about their intentions to create an electoral bloc at a time when ACUM appeared as an informal resistance movement in June 2018. This was a consequence of the invalidation of the Chisinau mayoral elections. So, the reproach of the PDM and its supporters actually refers only to the boldness of the leaders of the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth (PPDA) and the Party “Action and Solidity” (PAS) to: - protest against the government and its actions; - inform the citizens about their protests and the method of continuing the activity in accordance with the planned parliamentary elections. The question is – what is the difference between ACUM’s protest activity from the “PDM’s Express” of 2014?

President Igor Dodon was suspended from office for the fifth time after he refused to sign a package of anti-popular laws that were adopted by the outgoing parliamentary majority.

In a posting on Facebook, Igor Dodon wrote he refused to promulgate the new broadcasting code, the law to sell the site of the former National Stadium to the U.S. Embassy, the law on the renaming of May 9 as Europe Day, and two laws on the transfer of the General Carabineer Inspectorate under the Premier’s management, which undermines the constitutional duties of the President as the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, as Dodon underlined.

Independent analyst Vlad Lupan said there are a number of signals showing the current  government is moving not only towards the existing, undeclared coalition with President Igor Dodon, but also towards a coalition that favors Russia’s interests. He noted the statements made by President Igor Dodon in the State Duma of Russia concerning Moldova’s neutrality and the fact that Russia could guarantee this neutrality by keeping its troops on Moldova’s territory are exact points from the Kozak memorandum of 2003.

In an article for IPN Agency political pundit Dionis Cenușa said the Magnitsky Act version proposed for Moldova reveals the wish to combine the protection for human rights with the toughening up of the rules for corrupt foreign officials who are actively involved in illegal financial transactions.

The goal indicated for the Moldovan Magnitsky Act is primarily to protect the national financial and banking systems and to then impose restrictions on those involved in acts of corruption. The order of priorities in the draft law reveals the tensions that exist between the anti-government opposition, including the critical civil society, and the oligarchic political regime consolidated around the Democratic Party in 2016-2018.

The adoption of a Magnitsky Act is regarded as a way of preventing the negative consequences of the government’s decisions concerning the naturalization of foreigners whose names can be related to acts of corruption and violation of human rights, noted Dionis Cenușa.

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