The deadline for examining cases of political corruption, especially vote buying cases, is to be reduced. The executive and the legislative body will come up with proposals to amend the legislation in the immediate period. The issue was discussed on Monday by the Supreme Security Council convened by President Maia Sandu, IPN reports
"We discussed a very important topic for the Republic of Moldova, namely political corruption and the attack on the democracy of the Republic of Moldova, which we all witnessed during the presidential election and the referendum. We have seen how criminal groups tried to substitute the will of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. By buying votes, they tried to influence important decisions for the Republic of Moldova and its citizens," Maia Sandu said at a press conference.
According to the head of state, together with the responsible institutions, especially the institutions of the justice sector, they underscored that this criminal group has been dealing with political corruption not since yesterday and not the day before, but for at least 10 years. "We see different forms of political corruption starting from the illegal financing of parties, the illegal financing of election campaigns and, in recent years, we have also seen attempts to buy votes. The first example was during the elections held in ATU Gagauzia over a year ago. Attempts to buy votes were also made in the 2023 local elections.”
The official also said that she has not seen firm, correct, sufficient actions from the justice sector institutions to sanction these illegal actions, which endanger the democracy of the Republic of Moldova. "We discussed the things that need to happen in the coming weeks and months so that the Republic of Moldova as a state can ensure the observance of the authentic vote of the citizen and we discussed actions to prioritize the examination of political corruption cases, both by the prosecutor's office and by the courts. We know that there are many files and their examination takes time," said Maia Sandu.
In his opinion, it is also necessary to come up with changes in the legislation so as to shorten the period for the examination for cases of political corruption, especially for cases of vote buying. "In this regard, the Government, together with Parliament and other concerned institutions in the next few days will propose a concrete plan to ensure the priority examination of these cases and, respectively, the reduction of the examination deadlines so that we do not have situations in which the examination of these cases is postponed for many years," noted the head of state.
According to President Sandu, the external evaluation must also be completed despite the stubbornness with which some oppose this process. There is a need for institutions with honest and fair employees. There was also discussed the need to give a final reading to the law providing for the creation of the Anticorruption Court. Parliament will have public discussions on this legislative initiative this week.
