Out of the 3 746 candidates registered for the mayoral position in the 896 1st level electoral councils, only 338 (10%) are independent, while the others run on behalf of parties or electoral blocs. The number of registration refusals is at least 12, of which 10 for potential independent candidates. The data was presented in the 4th Report of the Observation Mission of the general local elections and snap parliamentary elections set for October 20, held by the Promo-LEX association.
In an IPN press conference, Pavel Postica, head of the Observation Mission, said that there were cases of incorrect application of the legal norms regarding the verification of the validity of collected signatures, including by the electoral bodies and the courts. These facts have, without cause, determined the refusal to register electoral candidates, the most resounding in this respect being the case of Ruslan Codreanu.
"However, the Promo-LEX Mission cannot overlook the fact that no potential electoral contestant has challenged the provisions of the CEC Regulation on subscription lists, which establishes harsher conditions compared to the norms of the Electoral Code", said Pavel Postica.
Additionally, according to the report, an imposing number of candidates were registered in violation of the legal provisions regarding the gender quota, as well as on the basis of the designation protocols adopted by political parties before the established legal start date (at least 5 registered files).
The report shows the existence of at least four cases of incompatibility on the grounds of kinship between the members of the electoral bureaus of the polling stations and candidates, as well as two cases of registration of candidates as representatives with advisory voting rights.
"Contrary to the principle of transparency, out of 32 filed appeals, the CEC has not published at least 11 appeals and 14 solutions to them, starting with October 3, 2019, in the context of general local elections," said Pavel Postica.
The report is based on data gathered between September 25 and October 16, 2019.
