The implementation of postal voting does not bring with it risks of electoral fraud, MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) Vitali Gavrouc stated in IPN’s public debate “Postal voting: pros and cons”.
According to him, when making a law on the implementation of postal voting and the mechanisms for its implementation, the experience of other states is of great use. Now the Republic of Moldova only needs to analyze well and adapt the electoral processes.
“It is quite a vast experience and, for the most part, those shortcomings that are considered to influence the elections have already been identified and solutions have been found. We hear the same uninspired arguments from debate to debate, but we don’t hear solutions. What we did was to come up with particular solutions that were already implemented by the countries where these methods were used. Regarding mailing, there are quite clearly explained regulations, which were used and didn’t affect the integrity of the vote or the electoral process. Regarding certain possible frauds, again, no concrete risk has been stated,” said Vitali Gavrouc.
The PAS MP believes that the time has come for politicians to learn to respect their citizens abroad equally and to understand that they live in countries with consolidated democracies and already managed to understand how a genuine democracy works. “There is conscience, fear of the law. Even in the United States, any offenses related to the electoral process are criminal offenses. And I think this also refers to the processes related to the elections in the Republic of Moldova. Any reasonable suspicion that a citizen in the United States rigged the Moldova elections on the territory of the U.S. is a criminal suspicion,” stated the MP.
Moreover, Vitali Gavrouc said that these citizens are going further and are already asking for electronic voting. “They are citizens who use technologies. These citizens also ask us for electronic voting. I want us to have a very respectful speech and not manipulate public opinion with certain things taken out of context,” he said.
He welcomed the involvement in public debates of extraparliamentary parties that support the initiative on the implementation of postal voting and have come up with proposals for improvement. Thus, amendments have already been prepared in terms of legislative technique to improve the existing draft law.
“We will not give this project up because sterile argumentation is not valid. What we understand is that the electoral process is a very complex and integral process. It’s not just about particular manipulative slogans. It goes to an integral process. It’s not just about making sure the ballot paper goes to the ballot box. It goes to a process that the state must guarantee and assume. For this reason, if we were demanding and responsible, we would understand that it cannot be implemented everywhere for objective reasons. There are objective arguments that will fall into these application criteria and, respectively, they are not related to discrimination. They are related to ensuring the voting process,” said Vitali Gavrouc.
The public debate entitled “Postal voting: pros and cons” was the 303rd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates”, which is implemented with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
