The Electoral Cede has omissions and should be supplemented so as to exclude in the future situations similar to the snap elections in Bălți and when such institutions as CEC can be accused of taking political decisions or decisions by political order, Nicolae Panfil, head of the Election Observation Mission of Promo-LEX Association, stated in a debate staged by IPN.
He noted the electoral observers should not pronounce on political aspects and should not react to political accusations. “The observers cannot become involved in political activities and we obey this standard, the requirements to this effect. Therefore, we do not have and will never have political positions as observers. We will refer strictly to the legal framework,” said the expert.
He explained that the legislation didn’t say it clearly how they should act when a candidate is excluded from the competition between the first and second rounds of voting. Promo-LEX considers the Electoral Code’s article 51, paragraph 7 should have been applied and the stamp “withdrawn” should have been applied. The Electoral Code does not stipulate that CEC can suspend the runoff vote.
Nicolae Panfil noted that point 26 of the CEC’s regulations says that if a candidate is withdrawn, the next candidate takes the place of this. However, in Bălți it wasn’t “withdrawal”, but “annulment of registration”.
“From legal viewpoint, we consider the opinion we stated is well-founded. The legal framework contains shortcomings, especially as regards the holding of the runoff vote, and these aspects should be clarified. CEC should take these aspects into account in the process of amending the legislation,” said the expert.
He noted that the court should clarify things in the current situation and should decide how to complete the electoral process in Bălți. Until now Moldova hasn’t witnessed such cases as the one seen in Bălți.
The debate “Elections in Bălti: between justice and politics, between lawfulness and surprises” is the 217th debate of the series “Developing Political Culture thorough Public Debates”. The project is implemented by IPN with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
