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Promo-LEX Association presented today, June 6, 2019, the annual reports on “Financing of political parties in the Republic of Moldova. Review of 2018” and “Implementation of strategic plans of the Central Electoral Commission and of the Center for Continuous Electoral Training. Review of 2018”. The event was attended by representatives of political parties, state institutions, civil society, etc.

Financing of political parties in the Republic of Moldova, 2018

The analysis of the evolution of the legislation on political parties, as well as on the elections conducted by Promo-LEX in 2018 shows that two significant improvements were made in the legislation related to cash donations and financial support to female politicians. However, according to the Association, the political financing system in Moldova is still vulnerable.

Although the Association found some progresses in parties’ reporting on financial management in 2018 – 96% compliance with the legal provisions, the access is still limited in terms of the completeness of financial information, including because of the imperfection of the financial reporting model proposed by the CEC.

The internal audit reports of parties that had over 1 million MDL of incomes reveals cursory conclusions and recommendations that are largely without substance. Moreover, many of these reports reveal a lack of clarity as to the type of internal audit required from political parties by the mandated authority. The Association regrets that the concerned institutions have not formulated terms of reference since the adoption of the law so that they can be used by the political parties in question.

Cornelia Călin, analyst of political parties’ finances, said: “As a result of the monitoring, we identified non-reporting of expenditures by 13 political parties amounting to 17,591,922 MDL, the category of expenses for public events being the least transparent one. The findings estimated at least 9,935,568 MDL to be unreported.”

The report reiterates and contains new recommendations addressed to the legislative body, electoral authorities, political parties and other stakeholders. The most important recommendations include:

To amend the Law 294/2017 by removing the provision that prohibits the financing of electoral campaigns and of political parties by Moldovan citizens who are temporarily abroad;

To exempt travels abroad from the ban of financing or providing free services or providing material support in any form whatsoever, directly and/or indirectly, to political parties by other states and international organizations, when the representatives of political parties are invited to attend meetings held outside the country, and the travel expenses are borne by the organizers.

To align the format of Reports on parties’ finance management with the format of Reports on the financing of electoral campaigns.

To clarify the requirements of internal audit by regulating them in the CEC Regulation on the financing of political parties or by drawing up instructions to guide the political parties to carry out internal audits.

In the second report “Implementation of Strategic Plans of the Central Electoral Commission and of the Center for Continuous Electoral Training”, the Promo-LEX Association assessed the activities of CEC and CICDE throughout 2018 from the perspective of their Strategic Plans (SP) and annual plans.

According to Promo-LEX’s view, formulated on the basis of the analysis of relevant documents, out of 31 planned activities the CEC managed to fully perform 68% and partially perform 26%, while 6% of activities were not implemented.

According to Promo-LEX analyst Mariana Focșa, the best results were achieved by the CEC in terms of improving the legal and related framework. To this end, CEC presented to the Parliament a number of proposals to amend the Electoral Code and to continuously improve the electoral management and build institutional capacities, where the CEC managed to achieve amendments to the legislation on the reward system for electoral officials.

On the other hand, worse results were achieved in the development and implementation of the modules of SIAS “Elections”, where the electoral authority failed to implement the module intended for monitoring and checking the financial reports of political parties, as well as to ensure transparency in the funding of political parties and electoral campaigns in order to implement the electronic mechanisms of monitoring the finances of political parties.

In the case of CICDE, the evaluators consider that the institution fully performed 47% and partially performed 40% of activities in 2018. 13% of activities were not implemented.

The best results were achieved by the institution in respect of the implementation of actions related to the delivery of diverse and innovative training services in the field of participatory democracy, performed at national and international level, while on the other hand, CICDE was not successful in maintaining and expanding a team of qualified trainers as planned.

As a result of evaluation of the activities carried out by the CEC and CICDE in 2018, Promo-LEX has drawn up a number of recommendations, including:

For the Central Electoral Commission

• To also use the monitoring reports developed by civil society when checking the financing of political parties.
• To regulate the process of using SIAS modules “Elections” at the elections.
• To implement tools of communication, collaboration and awareness raising of the diaspora on the elections.
• To regulate the process of compulsory licensing of electoral officials.

 For the Center for Continuous Electoral Training

• In cooperation with the CEC, to regulate the process of compulsory licensing of electoral officials.
• To identify and implement mechanisms to motivate and retain trainers.

The annual reports on “Financing of political parties in the Republic of Moldova. Review of 2018” and “Implementation of Strategic Plans of the Central Electoral Commission and of the Center for Continuous Electoral Training. Review of 2018” are conducted through the “Democracy, Transparency and Responsibility” program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

For more information, please contact:
Inga Stegarescu, Promo-LEX Association Press Officer
GSM: 069 26 96 84;
E-mail: [email protected]