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October 14, 2010. Promo-LEX Association has released the pre-electoral Monitoring report on the early parliamentary elections of 28 November 2010.

The present report refers to the period from September 29 – October 12 and describes the electoral environment, analyzes the electoral legislation and relevant regulations and presents the review of the field findings by observers. In the monitoring period, the mission found that the election authorities have showed an overall unbiased behavior and, with few exceptions, have met the deadlines prescribed by the legislation.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) developed a number of regulations and guidelines meant to clarify and enhance the electoral legal framework. The CEC established the electoral constituencies, approved the estimate of costs, and imposed a cap on the campaign financing. Also, the CEC authorized the first national observers.

The election campaign has so far been proceeding in low gear. The CEC established the place and time for submitting applications for the registration of the candidates in the early parliamentary elections of 28 November 2010. During the monitoring period, twelve political parties obtained registration with the election authority as electoral contenders. Some of the political parties kicked off their campaigns before obtaining formal registration.

The main findings formulated in the report concern the need to revise the Timetable with a view to bringing it in line with the provisions of the electoral legislation; to monitor how candidates observe the requirement to step aside from certain posts and warn those who fail to do so; to carry out information and electoral education campaigns to stimulate a high voter turnout, including on the eastern side of the Nistru River.

To exclude abuses of administrative resources in electoral purposes, the observation mission encourages the electoral contenders to ensure that the candidates on their lists step aside temporarily from their public posts for the duration of the electoral period.

Promo-LEX is conducting a long-term monitoring of the electoral period preceding the early parliamentary elections on 28 November 2010 within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. Promo-LEX will employ in the monitoring process 42 long-term observers deployed in all the districts of the country. The Promo-LEX observers received training on electoral procedures and instructions regarding the impartial and independent character of the monitoring effort. The recommendations of the monitoring mission are developed in good faith and aim to contribute to the improvement of the electoral process.

“We are expecting the campaign to be diverse and active,” said Ion Manole, the Chief of the Promo-LEX Monitoring Effort. “Promo-LEX observers will pay close attention to the fairness of the electoral process and the behavior of the competitors.”

This project is implemented with technical and financial assistance from the United States Embassy in Moldova, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The opinions expressed in the report belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the donors.

The report is available here.

Contact person Pavel Postica, Legal Department Promo-LEX, Tel. +373 22 211-622.