Prime Minister Pavel Filip ordered to constitute a cell for ensuring the proper conduct of the February 24 parliamentary elections. There was also set up the hotline with the phone numbers 022 250888 and 022 255063. The Central Election Commission also has a Call Center for the parliamentary elections and the national consultative referendum - 022 880101.
The Democratic Party said it notified international observers monitoring the February 24 plebiscite about the “abusive interference of the Russian Federation in the Moldovan elections” after criminal charges were announced in Moscow against the party’s leader Vlad Plahotniuc just two days before the vote. “We consider these actions to be initiated with the purpose of influencing the outcome of the Moldovan elections, to manipulate public opinion, and to advantage a certain political force at the disadvantage of another”, reads its press release. The Democrats say they also notified the international community about “repeated attempts by Russian special services to restrict the freedom of movement of some party members by sending warrants to the Interpol on fake charges, including during the election season.” The Democrats note that these “hybrid warfare” attempts have been rejected by the Interpol as “actions of political harassment”.
The next make-up of Parliament produced by the February 24 elections could be the “dirtiest possible”. The journalist Vitalie Calugareanu says he came to this conclusion after examining detailed information about the candidates as part of an ample journalistic profiling effort called “Clean Parliament”. It is crucial that everybody becomes conscious of the responsibility of being a citizen and stops voting for people who lie, who steal and who hate this country with all their guts”, stated Călugăreanu.
The Party of Socialists said the election campaign prior to the parliamentary elections of February 24 was one of the dirtiest in the country’s history. According to the PSRM’s secretary for ideology Ion Ceban, the party conducted a correct campaign and intends to win a majority of seats of MP. “We want to tell the people not to be afraid and to vote this Sunday even if they are intimidated, to vote as they consider necessary. We aim to win and will win,” stated Ion Ceban.
The misuse of administrative resources in the electoral campaign by using public assets or funds, or by promoting public policies can influence the vote. However, every alleged instance of such misuse should be examined with scientific tools so as to draw a clear line between abuse and legitimate government intervention. This is recommended in an analysis presented today by the Human Rights Resource Center CReDO
The campaign prior to the parliamentary elections of February 24 revealed a number of problems faced by Moldovan society. This was mainly conducted outside rules of and chaos was thus witnessed. Dumitru Roibu, the leader of the youth movement “Urmașii lui Ștefan” (“Spean’s Followers”), said the campaign was less noisy, but focused mainly on the legal aspect. At the same time, a lot of hidden games were played and the people didn’t understand them. “Independent candidates who are actually not independent, running parties that appeared overnight and parties that undertake the symbols of other parties. So, a game is created to modify the people’s vote so that the government remains with those to whom this is useful,” stated the activist.
Livia Țurcanu, co-author of the second monitoring report focusing on online campaign activities, compiled by the Youth Development for Innovation, told a press conference that the biggest online ad spenders as officially reported are the Democratic Party, the Shor Party, the electoral bloc NOW, and the Socialist Party. Of the candidates running in single-member constituencies the biggest spenders are all from the United States & Canada constituency – Roman Palancica, Alexandrin Patron and Viorel Savva.
The Election Code should be supplemented with punitive provisions concerning violations committed by election contestants in the online sphere, suggest representatives of the Foundation Youth Development for Innovation, which monitored the electoral behavior on this dimension.
The National Patrolling Inspectorate’s chief Marin Maxian told a news conference that electoral activities on the election day are allowed, but only up to the poster showing the number of the polling place. The election runners and their representatives are banned from offering food or alcoholic or other kinds of beverages to the voters. They are yet allowed to share out leaflets, calendars or other accessories with electoral information, but their value should not exceed 100 lei a piece.
The insured persons will benefit free from over 1,000 names of commercial medicines contained in the list of compensated drugs that was made public by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection. The included medicines are used to treat cardiovascular diseases, blood hypertension, diabetes, cancer, diseases of the respiratory system and digestive system and a series of rare diseases. “The measure is aimed at maintaining the state of health of those who were already sick or at preventing particular complications as it is very important to maintain the quality of life of the population that suffers from a particular disease, to protect financially these categories of people,” stated Tatiana Zatyk, division head at the Ministry of Health.
To stimulate taxpayers who pay by card, fiscal lotteries will be held in Moldova as well. The Ministry of Finance proposed the draft regulations concerning the holding of such lotteries for public consultations. The goal of fiscal lotteries is to reduce the number transactions in cash and to stimulate payment by card so as to combat tax evasion.
Details on IPN!