Different political actors not registered as presidential candidates or as referendum campaigners during the electoral period organized meetings with voters at which they campaigned. The events were camouflaged as meetings with citizens, said the Central Election Commission, noting that the legislation on assemblies should be amended and such violations should be penalized, IPN reports.
CEC chairwoman Angelica Caraman said that there were identified manifestations of voter corruption, disinformation, both online and through leaflets and posters, and illegal, non-compliant financing.
"We were notified, both during the electoral period and on election day, by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the agency of police inspectorates, which identified a series of irregularities and deviations from the electoral legislation. There were detected multiple events staged by the self-declared political bloc "Victory", including meetings with voters, spreading of campaign materials related to the referendum by this entity that was not registered, but continued unrestrictedly to carry out campaigning activities at the local level, including by distributing goods that are prohibited,” said the CEC chairwoman.
"Given such actions of the political subjects, it is necessary to come up with proposals, including for amending the legislation – the Law on Assemblies. It is necessary to penalize the conduct of the unauthorized campaign not only on election day, as the Contravention Code provides now, but also before it, right from the beginning of the electoral period.”
Angelica Caraman also said that this year's election was marked, as never before, by the illegal collection of personal data by unauthorized persons. At the same time, there were complaints about the influence of the voting option. "We have video recordings with obvious signs of breach of voting secrecy and, worse, even the influencing of the voting option. It is even sadder that such actions took place in medical institutions, in nursing homes. I think we will have to draw particular conclusions and examine in more detail these actions, including on the part of electoral officials,” noted the CEC head.
