The Sic! Project has launched a new article saying democracy in Moldova reached a new record low. According to the authors, despite its name, Vlad Plahotniuc’s party has breached and undermined the democratic system in Moldova during the last few years. The annulment of the results of the mayoral elections in Chisinau is only the last episode in a series of sad events. The article depicts the main moments of the erosion of Moldovan democracy under the rule of the Democratic Party (PDM), IPN reports.

“We will ignore the regrettably “ordinary” things, such as the use of administrative resources, non-transparent and dubious budgeting of public finances, subduing of independent institutions, harassment of the free press and civil society, etc. It seems that these are not sufficient for maintaining the Democrats in power so that these had to repeatedly violate the basic democratic mechanisms. In their perseverance, they started to ignore the opinions not only of the people, but also of the foreign partners (read “backers”),” said the authors of the article.

The first episode mentioned by the authors is the removal from the race of Renato Usatyi, who appeared somehow unexpectedly in Moldovan politics and went up swiftly in polls, to the dissatisfaction of the other parties. The government, through the agency of the Ministry of Justice, initially refused to approve the renaming of the National People’s Party as Our Party and then to register the party of Renato Usatyi (PaRUs). The politician then blamed Vlad Filat. Usatyi nevertheless managed to enter the electoral race with the Party “Homeland”, but was eliminated before the elections for using foreign funds. Then, Igor Dodon and the Party of Socialists (PSRM) were rather a fragment of the Party of Communists (PCRM), which helped the Alliance for European Integration to name Nicolae Timofti as President of Moldova. Almost all the polls put Usatyi ahead of the PSRM. After this was eliminate, Igor Dodon’s Socialists entered Parliament with 20.5% of the vote and became the largest parliamentary group.

The second episode mentioned in the article was the buying of MPs, more exactly when 14 Communist MPs left the PCRM in December 2015 and formed the Social-Democratic Parliamentary Platform that allied itself Vlad with Plahotniuc’s PDM. In March 2017, the 14 MPs entered the PDM. The Democratic parliamentary group became thus the largest, with 34 members. After several individual migrations later, its membership rose to 42. This way, the party that entered Parliament on the fourth place with 19 MPs doubled the number of seats and became the main parliamentary group.

Among other episodes the authors mention the replacement of the electoral system by creating the impression of a broad consensus and compromise, the capturing of the Chisinau City Hall and the blocking of the referendum #numixt (against the mixed electoral system). The attempts by that group of activists were blocked for several times, first by invoking some trivial technical aspects and second by invoking a Constitutional Court judgement, while the Central Election Commission decided that the ordinary citizens cannot initiate a referendum as this is the Parliament’s prerogative.

The nullification of the mayoral elections in Chisinau is the sixth episode. The authors noted that after the right to a referendum was annulled, the people had their vote annulled too. The early local elections were won by Andrei Nastase, who is known at least for his very harsh rhetoric against Vlad Plahotniuc. In the first round of voting, he outstripped and eliminated Silvia Radu, while in the runoffs he beat the Socialist candidate Ion Ceban, who also enjoyed the support of the media trust GMG. “It was clear that Nastase’s victory thwarted all the Democrats’ plans. The efforts invested in Silvia Radu failed and plan B in the person of Ion Ceban wasn’t better. Before the parliamentary elections, the opposition won the capital city. A large part of the PDM members who defected from the PCRM already experienced a similar situation in 2007 and know nothing good can be expected. So, the “independent” judiciary annulled the election results,” reads the article.

“Even if the election invalidation decision is final as it was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice, the EU gave up the diplomacy and directly requested the Moldovan authorities to take the necessary measures and validate the election outcome. The EU admits that the judiciary is controlled by the Democratic leader and speaks about a more pronounced tendency towards an authoritarian and arbitrary government. In the very harsh resolution adopted on July 5, the  European Parliament “expresses its profound concern about the further deterioration of democratic standards in  Moldova; admits that decision of the courts, which already have been many times cited as politically influenced and driven, is an example of state capture and a very deep crisis of institutions in Moldova. It also regrets that despite numerous calls made by the international community, the authorities continue to undermine the citizens’ trust in the correctness and impartiality of the state institutions”. This is only one of the very critical paragraphs of the resolution.

For things to be clear, the Europeans announce the suspension of the first installment of the macro-financial assistance until after the parliamentary elections. It is about the same installment that Prime Minister Pavel Filip and others in winter promised will soon come as all the conditions were met. “Vlad Plahotniuc didn’t lose yet temper and assures that it is anyway not about large sums of money and the government is prepared as we are in an electoral year, while Vitalie Gamurari dares to give democracy lessons to the Europeans. According to him, the resolution was debated in an empty hall in a non-transparent and politicianist way. Now, deprived of support inside and outside the country, the Democrats seem to be confronted by the own earlier mistakes. It seems that there is no place for democracy and for the Democratic Party too in our small republic,” said the authors.

The full article in Romanian is available here.