Press Release
on the organization of the debate “Framework for regulating and ensuring 2014 parliamentary elections: guarantees, innovations, challenges and threats”, the 32nd installment of the “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” Series; Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”
As the title suggests, Debate 32 discussed several key issues, and namely: how appropriate to this historical period are the existing legal framework and the capacities of the electoral authorities to ensure free and fair elections on November 30, as well as a civilized electoral campaign? The answer to this question depends to a great extent on the capacity of the law and the Central Election Commission to offer guarantees for the observance of the law and to adapt to the new realities by making adjustments and introducing innovations, the capacity to deal with challenges and threats, both traditional and specific to the current electoral campaign, associated with the tensed situation in neighboring Ukraine, which could have electoral reverberations in Moldova as well.
This was, by and large, the official terminology used in the debate. In addition, given the particularities of our debate series, which deals with political culture, consideration was also given to the notion of free and fair elections – why we need precisely this type of elections and not other varieties.
In this respect, the project's permanent expert Igor Botan explained that free and fair elections is a recognized notion that combines a number of criteria. “Free elections mean that the active and passive people with the right to vote are not hindered in any way to take part in the elections either as voters or as candidates. This phrase also refers to the conditions stipulated in the legislation and to the notion of integrity of the electoral process that combines all the factors and criteria for the challenges not to affect the final results, more exactly for the people to have the impression that their will is reflected in the final results,” he stated.
The participants in the debate agreed that the Central Election Commission (CEC) has all the instruments needed for ensuring free and fair elections. However, the elections depend not only on the mechanisms of the CEC, but also on society in general and on the political class. The Moldovan voters must be educated not to accept electoral presents, while the politicians must be obliged to carry out fair election campaigns.
CEC deputy chairman Stefan Uritu said even the election date this year was set in an unusual way, in May. Earlier, the election date remained an enigma until the launch of the election campaign. “The CEC in the current composition achieved a number of results that point to its independence and impartiality. The building where the Commission is based was made its property. The second year the Commission’s budget has been agreed by Parliament and the factors that earlier troubled some of the observers are eliminated. The state register of voters and the register of electoral functionaries are close to being finished. We have 4,200 computers that will be transmitted to the about 2,000 electoral offices,” he stated.
According to Stefan Uritu, the operators will be able to check if a person who comes to cast the ballot voted already elsewhere. “This is another guarantee of free and fair elections. The polling booths and ballot boxes will be standardized. The polling places will be outfitted with the same types of booths, of the same color. The reporting will be swift, through the same computers. The CEC passed the exam in the ISO and security standards and in the quality of services. This is another indicator of our preparedness,” he stated.
Igor Botan said that everything that the CEC has achieved until now is the result of the efforts made during 20 years. “This is a reason for optimism. The solutions found by the CEC are good. The structure of the CEC meets the best international practices. But everything depends on us. The only problem is the lawmakers’ political will. I mean the obstacles placed in front of the very small parties and very large parties. We called the high election threshold and the redistribution of votes “Robin Hood’s formula” as this method disadvantages the large parties and the electoral blocs,” stated Igor Botan.
The executive director of the Comrat Youth Center “Pligrim-Demo” Mihail Sirkeli noted that not everything depends on the CEC and the electoral bodies. Many things depend on the politicians and the voters. “From my viewpoint, the future campaign will experience problems related to the funding of campaigns and parties and media coverage. We will see what happens in the area of financing of election campaigns and their coverage. The Election Code wasn’t amended. There are two relevant bills in Parliament, but they weren’t adopted as there is no political will to change the rules of the game,” stated Mihail Sirkeli.
The experts said that society must be educated not to give their votes in exchange for electoral presents. They gave as example Norway where the people would feel offended if they were offered a gift in exchange for support in elections.
The Agency published 5 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 16.09.14, “ IPN debates: Moldova can ensure correct elections, but everything depends on society and politicians” - http://www.ipn.md/en/special/64504; CEC aims to establish more polling places abroad” - http://www.ipn.md/en/integrare-europeana/64507; on 17.09.14 “ Stefan Uritu: We must make sure that authorities intervene less in electoral process” - http://www.ipn.md/en/arhiva/64513; “ Igor Botan: Elections are rigged not in polling places” - http://www.ipn.md/en/arhiva/64514; “ Expert from Comrat: Gagauz people are represented in Parliament” - http://www.ipn.md/en/arhiva/64515.
Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN