A proposal for counteracting the organized transportation of voters on July 11 didn’t garner a sufficient number of votes of members of the Central Election Commission (CEC), IPN reports.

The proposal was to allow only motor vehicles with the transportation capacity of at most eight persons to travel on the country’s territory on the election day, between 7am and 9pm, except for vehicles running on regular routes.

The transportation of voters to polling stations in the interests of election runners, transportation of voters with the aim of making them vote for one of the candidates, transportation of voters to polling stations by buses or by the road transport operator in a taxi regime, according to agreements with third parties others than the passenger or voter, except for cases involving voters with disabilities, were also to be banned.

According to CEC secretary Maxim Lebedinschi, the draft decision does not explain the difference between the treatment of Moldovan citizens who are inside the country and the treatment of those who live outside the country as the latter are not banned from benefitting from organized transport on the election day. The provision limits the right to movement and is a measure of constraint that should be stipulated by the legal framework, not by regulations. Also, the draft wasn’t appraised by the Ministry of Justice and the National Anticorruption Center.

Lawyer Veronica Mihailov-Moraru, the representative of PAS, tried to obtain the replacement of Maxim Lebedinschi, invoking a conflict of interest as the CEC secretary is the brother of BeCS candidate Adrian Lebedinschi, but the request was rejected.

In the presidential elections of 2020, the CEC adopted a similar proposal and allowed only motor vehicles with the transportation capacity of at most eight persons to travel on the country’s territory on the election, except for vehicles running on regular routes.