The head of the election observation mission of Promo-LEX Association Pavel Postica said the report on the February 24 parliamentary elections presented by the OSCE Mission is a harsh one. According to him, it is for the first time that an international mission under the aegis of the OSCE in its preliminary reports included credible information about vote buying, misuse of administrative resources, etc., IPN reports.
“The role of these reports is to advise the public and the interested persons, especially the electoral bodies and public authorities, particularly the Government and Parliament, to take measures so that such negative situations are no longer witnessed,” Pavel Postica stated in the program “Emphasis on today” on TVR Moldova channel.
Polina Panainte, secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, said the Coalition classed the elections as unfair and partially free. “The OSCE Mission, in its report, used a more diplomatic language given that such reports are given priority by the European Union and when the EU pronounces on an electoral process, it makes reference to these reports. It is known that the EU imposed the condition of holding free and fair elections for releasing its financial assistance to Moldova. Respectively, a more general formulation that can be interpreted positively leaves more room for discretion in the dialogue between the EU and the Republic of Moldova,” she stated.
Sorina Macrinici, programs director at the Legal Resources Center, noted the rise in the number of pooling places abroad didn’t have the expected impact as the necessities and criterial specified by the CEC weren’t met. This issue should be debated by the future Parliament. The practice and method of implementing the electoral legislation should be modified in Moldova as there are rather serious problems in this regard.
