At the snap parliamentary elections of July 11, the association Promo-LEX will have 43 long-term observers, including at the polling stations that will be established outside the country and in the Transnistrian region. As regards the short-term observers, at national level about 600 static observers will be present at polling stations. Besides these, about 140 observers will monitor the situation within 70 mobile teams that will travel all over the country, IPN reports.
The 21st Election Observation Mission was launched on May 13 at a news conference. During the election campaign, Promo-LEX aims to produce six periodical monitoring reports, every two weeks. On the election day, it will issue press releases and will hold news conferences. At the end of the campaign, the Mission will present a final report that will incorporate all the findings of the monitoring period and recommendations for the election contenders, the CEC and other stakeholders.
Promo-LEX programs director Nicolae Panfil presented the first monitoring report on the snap parliamentary elections of July 11. The election campaign funding is one of the monitored aspects. Nicolae Panfil said that as Parliament can no longer amend the state budget law, the Government should ensure the allocation of the financial resources needed for holding the elections. On May 12, the Government decided that the Ministry of Finance will allocate a first tranche of 70 million lei from the Reserve Fund to the Central Election Commission for organizing the snap parliamentary elections of July 11, 2021. The sum represents only 56% of the expenditure estimate adopted by the CEC. The Mission warns that to avoid eventual risks and uncertainty as to the proper conduct of elections, the Government should undertake to fully finance the election-related costs.
According to Promo-LEX, party switching is a phenomenon that affects both the image of MPs and the sociopolitical life. During the two-year activity of Parliament, about 20% of the MPs migrated from one party to another, especially the Democratic MPs. In this connection, Nicolae Panfil noted that the legislative body in 2020 unanimously adopted a decision by which it condemned party switching and political corruption.
Promo-LEX said that in December 2020 – April 2021, Parliament didn’t take actions to implement the recommendations formulated by the Constitutional Court in 2016 and 2020, concerning the revision of the legislation, creation of control mechanisms and punishment for the involvement of religious denominations in election campaigns and for preventing and fighting hate speech between election runners, including online. According to the association’s data, hate speech in 2018-2020 was used to a higher extent, with more pronounced dynamics during the pre-electoral and electoral periods. In order to raise the awareness of election campaign stakeholders and prevent the use of hate speech and incitement to discrimination, the Promo-LEX Observation Mission will continue monitoring this phenomenon during the elections of July 11, 2021.
Report No. 1 on the observation of the snap parliamentary elections covers both the pre-electoral period and the electoral period before the start of the candidate nomination procedures (December 23, 2020 – May 11, 2021).
