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26 June 2015 // Chisinau – Altercations between representatives of two parties in Bacioi v., Chisinau mun.; violent assault of an election contestant in Racovat v., Soroca d.; distribution of leaflets in the vicinity of several churches in Chisinau mun., which denigrated the image of a candidate for the position of Mayor of Chisinau mun. These are some of the most severe violations stated in the fourth Report of the Elections Observation Mission, presented by Promo-LEX. The report covers the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova during the period of 15-24 June 2015, on the basis of the findings made by Promo-LEX observers. See the report HERE.

According to the Promo-LEX Association’s report, during the election campaign for the second round of the General Local Elections of 28 June 2015 the number of electoral activities was lower. Thus, the election contestants organized at least 13 meetings with voters, 12 electoral concerts, and six election candidates carried out „door-to-door” activities. The outdoor and media advertising decreased, as well. At the same time, a big part of contestants submitted complaints, asking for the votes to be recounted.

“During the monitored period, the electoral bodies had an intense working regime, and focused on the processing of the results of the first round of voting. CEC adopted six Election Regulatory Decisions and reviewed a complaint, filed by one election candidate. At the same time, the second-level Constituency Councils and courts of law reviewed at least 37 complaints, 20 of which focused on votes recounting”, stated Pavel Postica, head of the Promo-LEX Observation Mission.

Promo-LEX analyzed the financial statements, submitted by election candidates to CEC during 6-12 June, and compared them with the observers’ findings in the field. Thus, Promo-LEX established that only 17 of all election candidates submitted financial statements to CEC, and 14 reported revenue and expenses. According to observers, during the reporting period only 786 citizens contributed with funds with the campaign budgets of political parties and electoral blocks. They donated approximately MDL 13.51 million.

“Overall, the election candidates reported to CEC revenue totalling at MDL 17.77 million. Most of the expenses reported by election candidates (71%) were intended for advertising. No election contestant reported any “salaries of temporary employed staff” as expenses during the reporting period. Insignificant amounts were reported on the lines of “rental of offices” and “related utilities”. Only one election contestant reported “expenses related to the delegation or secondment of people”. At the same time, the largest expenses for the election campaign of the 2015 local elections were reported by PDM – MDL 23.68 million, accounting for 39.98% of the threshold set by CEC. PSRM ranks the second – MDL 14.53 million (24.53%), and PPPN ranks the third with MDL 11.63 million (19.63%)”, stated Cornelia Calin, financial analyst of Promo-LEX Observation Mission.

At the same time, Promo-LEX recommends to criminal prosecution bodies to charge the persons guilty of having used administrative resources, offered electoral presents, instigated to violence and intimidated citizens.

We remind that the Promo-LEX Observation Mission will monitor on 28 June the second round of the 2015 General Local Elections and will organize three press conferences during the day, where it will present qualitative and quantitative information about the conduct of the electoral process on the whole territory of the Republic of Moldova. Promo-LEX will perform the parallel vote tabulation in Chisinau and Comrat municipalities.

Promo-LEX Observation Mission declares itself to be neutral and equidistant towards the election candidates; it is not an investigation body and does not assume the express obligation to support the observers’ findings by evidence.

The General Local Elections of 14 (28) June 2015 are monitored by Promo-LEX Association under its Monitoring Democratic Processes Program. The Observation Mission is part of the activities carried out by the civil society under the aegis of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.

The Observation Mission of the General Local Elections of 14 (28) June 2015 is supported financially U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Council of Europe and benefits of technical assistance provided by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).

The opinions presented in the report belong to authors and do not necessarily reflect the donors’ view.

For additional information please contact: Simion Ciochina, Communication Officer of the Observation Mission for the 2015 General Local Elections, Tel: 0 (22) 49 26 84, GSM: (+373) 69 11 96 94, E-mail: [email protected]