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August 18, 2010. Promo-LEX Association launched the first Monitoring report on the electoral campaign for the national constitutional referendum on 5 September 2010. Monitoring period: 7 July 2010 – 13 August 2010

The monitoring of the national constitutional referendum, which will take place on September 5, is a project implemented by the Association Promo-LEX as part of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. “Coalition 2009” is a voluntary union of non-governmental organizations aiming to enhance the electoral process and raise public confidence in this process. The programs of monitoring elections within the framework of the “Coalition 2009” are implemented by Promo-LEX as well as other member organizations.

The monitoring effort by Promo-LEX will include 42 long-term observers, who will monitor the electoral process in all the electoral constituencies in Moldova in the period from 13 August 2010 to 10 September 2010. The long-term observers will be assisted by some 300 short-term observers (covering 15% of the total polling stations, distributed across the territory of Moldova, based on a representative sample) who will monitor the electoral process on election day.

Executive summary

The lack of a dialogue among the governing parties and the parliamentary opposition in the parliament formed after 29 July 2010, in particular on the issue of the presidential vote, has led to a constitutional deadlock. The AEI member-parties agreed to concentrate the constitutional reform on the amendment of Art.78, which would allow for the election of the president by a direct popular vote.

On 5 September 2010, Moldova will hold its first ever constitutional referendum, where the voters will be asked to express their opinion about the proposal to introduce a direct vote for the president. The voters will be asked to answer the question: “Would you agree with the amendment of the Constitution which would allow for the election of the President of Moldova directly by the people?”, with two options given: “Yes” and “No”.

The monitoring reports by the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, which observed the elections in 2005, 2007 and 2009, have served as sources or inspiration for amendments to the Election Code.

The Central Election Commission has developed a series of regulations and guidelines aimed at improving the quality and transparency of the electoral process. However, some of these documents contain provisions that run counter to the provisions of the Election Code or leave room for interpretation.

For the purpose of the constitutional referendum, special polling places will be opened abroad apart from those traditionally established within Moldova’s diplomatic missions.

At the September 5 referendum, 45 polling stations will test the Electronic Voter Register.
Twenty-five political parties and sociopolitical organizations have been registered as participants in the upcoming referendum. Running afoul of its own regulations, the CEC registered participants that failed to express their option as to the question of the referendum. The CEC also banned voters from registering as participants and campaigning for the referendum.

Contrary to the legal provisions, the local authorities in some districts of the country engaged in campaigning by calling on voters to refrain from participating in the constitutional referendum.

The Timetables approved by the CEC suffer from a host of deficiencies. There were cases where the time limits for some electoral operations were exceeded.

The constitutional referendum arouses less interest among the national and international observers.
Two parliamentary parties failed to delegate representatives to electoral councils and electoral bureaus.

The voters living in the Transnistrian region and in certain settlements on the western side of the Nistru which are controlled by the secessionist authorities will continue to vote in special polling places on the territory controlled by the legitimate authorities of Moldova. The CEC hasn’t established electoral councils for those constituencies.

This project is financially and technically supported by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United States Embassy, and the East Europe Foundation, with resources from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Eurasia Foundation. Any opinions expressed belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the donors.

The report is available here.

Note: For further information contact the Legal Department Promo-LEX, Pavel Postica, tel. 211 622.