When the electoral legal framework is discussed, one cannot discuss only two categories of documents, such as legislation and good or bad normative documents. There is also the middle category, Promo-LEX program director Pavel Postica stated in IPN’s public debate “Does legal framework guarantee free and fair elections? Who guarantees correct implementation of legal framework?”
According to Pavel Postica, Moldova’s legislation contains electoral provisions of which the country can be proud, including in relation to other states, but there are also defective provisions that in parts shadow the accomplishments and positive provisions. “No matter how small or defective a provision is, if a lot is speculated on it or it is used or implemented with bad intention, we risk vitiating the whole product or the whole electoral process,” he stated.
Speaking about how the legal framework ensures the rights of candidates and voters, the expert made reference to the specific character of the presidential elections, when the potential candidates must collect signatures from voters in support of them.
“Here we see a completely strange approach of the Central Election Commission that we noted also in the last parliamentary elections that were organized based on the mixed electoral system and we saw the unjustified non-admission of potential electoral contenders for banal reasons that are not stipulated by the legal framework,” said Pavel Postica.
According to him, there are provisions that lead to the invalidation of signatures and there are also provisions of the CEC’s regulations that weren’t challenged by the potential electoral competitors when they started to collect signatures. “Initially, the aspirants accepted the conditions of the regulations, but later, when they saw that hundreds and thousands of signatures were invalidated based on regulations that run counter to the Electoral Code and they were thus not admitted to the electoral race, they started to make effort to defend their rights. Someone succeed, while others did not.”
Among others, Pavel Postica noted that the national media providers are obliged by law to organize debates, but the electoral contenders are not obliged to. Consequently, the candidates refuse to take part or profit occasionally.
The public debate “Does legal framework guarantee free and fair elections? Who guarantees correct implementation of legal framework?” was the 155th installment of the series “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
