After the hearing in the case of the former president of the Administration Board of Banca de Economii, Ilan Shor, mayor of Orhei town, was put off a month ago, the hearing scheduled for January 21 was postponed until February 20.

In June 2017, Ilan Shore was sentenced by the first court to seven years and a half in jail for causing considerable damage to the state by swindle and abuse of trust. The case reached the Chisinau Appeals Court in only six months and in February 2018 was transferred to the Cahul Appeals Court.

“Elections in plain words” from IPN (notions, terms and practices related to the parliamentary elections based on the mixed electoral system and the consultative referendum that will take place on February 24, 2019): Integrity certificate provides information about the existing legal/juridical restrictions on applying for or holding public posts and the existence or inexistence of definitive ascertaining documents concerning the regime of declaring property and personal interests, states of incompatibility and confiscation of unjustified property, and also about documents that are not prescribed.

The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections expressed its support for the national election minoring mission of Promo-LEX Association and rejected the denigrating attacks on the mission. According to the Coalition, the conclusions of the two reports produced by the mission are a consistent presentation of facts and phenomena that were seen and reported during a number of election campaigns, but weren’t solved. The approaching of the parliamentary elections of February 24 only emphasizes noxious behavior and practices that in time became deep-rooted, instead of being eliminated.

It also noted that the problems to which those featured in the observations of the monitoring mission of Promo-LEX refer appear not because of the lack of a methodology or of subjective attitude of experts, but due to the confusion created deliberately by those who hold the instruments of power. They accept the political parties and their members to practice political, business, charitable, media, propagandistic, religious and other kinds of activities.

According to the president of the Journalistic Investigations Center Cornelia Cozonac, the Central Election Commission during the past few years has blurred information about the workplace and place of residence of those who donate to political parties and this makes the verification of information more difficult when only the name and sum are indicated.

“Even if we were involved in a trial with the Central Election Commission and we won the case, with the court deciding that the given information is public, we cannot yet see it being made public. At a certain moment, all the financial reports and then the statements disappeared from the website of the CEC and then reappeared,” stated Cornelia Cozonac.

The activity of investigation journalists has also been recently blocked by the National Integrity Authority, which was earlier more open, when it was called the National Integrity Commission. Journalists say they have been refused access to information on the pretext that this contains personal data. “We consider they really abuse here as we usually ask for information of public interest, not for private information. But the institutions say they are pressed by the Center for the Protection of Personal Data and they could be penalized for providing such information,” noted Cornelia Cozonac.

President Igor Dodon will not run in the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019. The announcement was made in a press briefing on January 21. President Dodon said his moral and political support will be oriented to the Party of Socialists that fielded him in the presidential elections of 2016 and that supported all the presidential initiatives.

President Dodon said efforts should be made to conduct a honest campaign and regain the people’s and development partners’ confidence. The elections should be mandatorily held in accordance with the international standards as any attempt to distort the voters’ will can have unfavorable consequences in the long run.

In a news conference at IPN, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT Igor Boțan said the candidates are examined by four organizations: Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, Association of Independent Press, Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption and Journalistic Investigations Center. The used criteria are: integrity in political activity; integrity in the management of property and personal interests; integrity when holding public and party posts, and the records of punishment. The goal of the initiative is to promote the informed vote in the parliamentary elections and targets the voters, electoral contenders, parties and public institutions.

Victor Munteanu, lawyer for ex-Premier Vlad Filat, said the new case over money laundering in considerable amounts against his client that was sent to court is double indictment. He voiced hope that that the examination of the second case will be public and will meet all the conditions of a fair trial. “Not only should the public have access and be able to inform itself about the developments in this case. I also refer to the limitations witnessed in the first case,” stated the lawyer.

Jurist of the Legal Resources Center Ion Guzun said from that the information presented in the public sphere one can deduce that Vlad Filat is accused two times for the same offense.

Health policy expert Ala Nemerenko said it is the right of each patient to have access to any information about his health, the results of analyses, investigations and administered treatment. Information systems by which patients access medical data through portals, without bothering the medical personnel, exist all over the world. We remained anchored in old times when a person is assigned to release information by order of the manager of the medical-sanitary institution, which is bureaucracy and waste of time. “It’s time for the ministry to align its policies to the international ones and create viable information systems,” stated the expert.

Details on IPN!