The legal and normative framework for organizing the electoral process is now better compared with the local elections of 2011 and the parliamentary elections of 2014 and this allowed the local elections of June 14 (28) to be free. But the use of administrative resources, the offering of electoral presents and the biased coverage of the campaign show that these elections were partially fair, consider the civil society associations that form part of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.
In a news conference at IPN, the Coalition’s secretary Nicolae Panfil said the members of the Coalition welcome the approval by the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the statement concerning the accessibility of the electoral process for persons with special needs, the introduction of the ‘sleeve’ envelope for persons with visual impairments and the distribution of video materials for persons with hearing impairments.
The Coalition approves of the efforts made by the CEC to ensure transparency and swiftness in the vote counting process and to segregate the data on voter turnout according to such criteria as age and sex of voters. Nicolae Panfil said the Commission’s efforts to carry out different national information campaigns to promote participation in elections are also appreciable, but the cooperation with civil society in mobilizing specific groups of voters, like young people, women and national minorities, was poor.
Cornelia Calin, of Promo-LEX Association, said the fact that the number of cases of abuse of administrative resources in the election campaign and of offering presents has increased is worrisome. The observers of Promo-LEX reported at least 39 cases of abuse of administrative resources and over 40 cases of electoral present offering. The financial reporting on the use of resources in the campaign improved, but the artists remain ‘non-paid’ for their services.
Nadine Gogu, director of the Independent Journalism Center, said the media outlets covered the election campaign in a biased way, while the Broadcasting Coordination Council intervened with delay. The penalties should be made harsher as a fine of several thousand lei is insignificant for a TV channel that charges €4,000 per minute of electoral publicity.
Doru Curosu, chairman of the National Youth Council of Moldova, stated that the turnout among the young people at these elections was lower because there were staged no civic education programs and campaigns to encourage their participation in elections. Though the young people are presented as a priority in most of the electoral platforms, these are at the back of the lists of election runners.
Alexei Buzu, director of the Partnership for Development Center, said all the concerns mentioned by the Coalition must be addressed by the leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party because these parties could have taken measures not to delay the adoption of an appropriate legal framework.
