The member organizations of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (CALC) called again on the Central Election Commission to adopt a decision by which to prevent the organized transportation of voters on the election day. The signatories ask the CEC to urgently adopt a decision on the monitoring and hampering of illegal transportation of voters to polling places and to ensure this decision is swiftly published in the Official Gazette, IPN reports.
CALC reminds that on May 31, it asked the CEC to adopt a decision by which to prevent the organized transportation of voters on the election day, July 11, similar to its decision of October 20, 2020 that resulted in a reduction in the number of cases of organized transportation of voters identified by national observers, compared with the parliamentary elections of 2019.
OSCE/ODIHR international mission noted that of the 300 incidents reported by the police on November 1, 2020 and of the 325 incidents reported during the presidential runoff, most were cases of organized transportation in connection with vote buying. In about ten cases of the over 200 reports, the police identified evidence of organized transportation.
“The problem of organized transportation of voters wasn’t regulated by Parliament after the presidential elections of 2020 either. Under such circumstances, the adoption by the CEC of a decision on the monitoring and hampering of illegal transportation of voters is an optimal solution for ensuring free and fair elections. Also, the decision will contribute to strengthening the legal preconditions for courts to pronounced sentences or for violations committed by the law enforcement agencies to be ascertained,” said the signatories.
They also make reference to the findings of the Election Observation Mission of Promo-LEX, which show that in the presidential elections of 2020, cases of organized transportation were reported both on the territory of the Republic of Moldova and abroad. The largest part of the situations occurred in the voting process organized for voters from the Transnistrian region.
According to CALC, these violations can influence considerably the election outcome. Also, the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova provides that all the election contenders enjoy equal conditions for campaigning and for making their electoral messages known to voters so that these decide their voting preferences in a free, informed and conscious way. The Coalition warns that on the left side of the Nistru, which is not under the constitutional control of the Moldovan authorities, the election contenders cannot campaign, the local media outlets do not stage electoral debates, while the media on the right bank of the Nistru that hold electoral debates and transmit to Transnistria are jammed by the Transnistrian security services.
