Representatives of the National Alternative Movement Party (MAN) say that the elections were conducted in breach of international electoral standards and with deviations from the legislation. According to them, if this continues, the future elections will not be considered free and fair, as such actions threaten democracy and the right of citizens to choose freely. At the same time, the party speaks out against corruption and vote buying, against the use of administrative resources, blackmail and political persecution, against discrimination and incitement to hatred, instruments that, according to MAN, were intensively used in the last elections, IPN reports.
"Our citizens must have the possibility to choose freely and deliberately. Society is ready to debate electoral programs, assess the results obtained by political forces, discuss ideas and doctrines. It is time to leave in the past the hate speeches and actions that lead to the division of society," lawyer Mariana Barașianț, jurist of MAN party, said in a press conference.
According to Barașianț, violations were witnessed even before the start of the election campaign, including the start of early campaigning. "The Central Election Commission did not notice this repeated violation, arguing its position by interpreting the definitions of political advertising and electoral advertising. This interpretation can also differ, depending on the political actor involved or suspected in such actions. We also found and notified the CEC of hundreds of thousands of political materials that directly promoted a candidate. Everyone saw and said that there was electoral campaigning outside the campaign, but the CEC did not see it," said the jurist.
Another jurist of the party, Andrei Oțel, said that both the members of the MAN and the observation missions noticed a series of violations during the campaign, including the corruption of voters, electoral bribe being offered through transfers and cash. A number of people were arrested for vote-buying activities. Also, there were witnessed cases of the use of denigrating materials by a number of candidates and their supporters was noticed and of abusive use of administrative resources. At the same time, there were cases when supporters of election candidates were intimidated, even assaulted.
"Thus, all these violations found and noticed by us, as well as by international observation missions, were overlooked by the CEC, which, we remind, is dominated by the ruling party. I have stated more than once that six out of nine CEC members were appointed by the ruling party. In this regard, even the ODIHR in its latest report found that the CEC makes biased decisions in favor of the ruling party. The question arises: how can we ensure equal conditions for all participants in the electoral process?", said the lawyer.
According to Andrei Oțel, Parliament should not invent anything other than to implement the recommendations of the ODIHR and review the composition of the Central Election Commission so that the CEC becomes an independent institution.
