A monitoring report released today by the NGO Promo-Lex showed minor electoral deviations registered in the early weeks of the campaign preceding the June 5 local elections. These include electoral campaigning prior to the candidates’ formal registration, offering of electoral gits, incertitude related to the voter rolls and others, Info-Prim Neo reports.

Promo-Lex chairman Ion Manole told a news conference launching the report that the pre-electoral period was marked by incertitude as to when the elections were to be held. Further, a number of amendments were made to the Election Code beyond the time limit recommended by the Venice Commission. “Another less positive issue is the suspension of provisions that prescribed the modality of compiling electoral rolls. We believe this is a step back. We’ve returned to the old modality of compiling lists. Again we don’t have a body that would be responsible for these lists”, said Ion Manole.

Corneliu Cirimpei, the coordinator of the Promo-Lex observers’ network, said that deficiencies were also reported in respect to the establishment of polling stations. As of May 4, the official website of the Central Election Commission lacked systematized information about the location of polling stations and contacts for them. “There is an unhealthy tendency of low visibility of the information adopted by the election authorities at different levels. In many cases, information is unavailable even when requested by voters and accredited observers”, said Corneliu Cirimpei.

Concerning the voter rolls, Corneliu Cirimpei remarked the lack of a standardized approach in respect to the compilation, administration, transmission, updating and verification of the electoral lists.

Corneliu Cirimpei also said that in different parts of the country a number of candidates started their campaigning activity prior to their formal registration as candidates. Gifts accompanied by messages of electoral nature were offered in a number of districts as well as in Chisinau. There were also reported cases of violence between electoral rivals.

To remove these deficiencies, Promo-Lex recommends initiating awareness-raising campaigns to promote civilized behavior between political rivals, entrusting the responsibility to compile voter rolls to a single authority, introducing clear legal definitions for electoral gifts and electoral corruption.

Promo-Lex is carrying out its monitoring effort for the June 5 elections with the financial and technical support of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

Source: Info-prim.md

Promo-Lex Association, which is a member of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, is ready to begin monitoring the June 5 local elections. About 800 short-term and 40 long-term observers will supervise the election campaign and the polls all over the country and report on the identified irregularities. The towns of Chisinau, Balti and Comrat will be covered fully, while the rest of the country to a lesser extent. Promo-Lex will send observers to Corjova village in Transnistria as well, Info-Prim Neo reports.

Coordinator Corneliu Cirimpei said they aim to determine the trends of the current campaign, in comparison with the previous ones, and how the electoral legalization is understood and observed. They will monitor the behavior of the election contenders and the correctness of the electoral process. There will be identified the positive results achieved on the basis of the remonstrations made by the Association the previous campaigns.

“We will first of all supervise the transmission of information from an electoral body to another and how this information is made public,” said Corneliu Cirimpei.

The observers of Promo-Lex will also analyze the performance of the local public administration, how the local authorities cooperate with the electoral bodies, if administrative, both financial and image resources are used.

Corneliu Cirimpei also said that one of the objectives of the Association is to establish the correctness of the relations between the local administrations and different electoral bodies. “There are already reasons for concern. Some of the observers who asked for documents from the electoral bodies encountered difficulties in obtaining information. The Chisinau district electoral council is also reticent,” he said. According to him, the observers were advised to look for the documents they need on websites, though they have not been yet published there.

Annalist Pavel Postica said amendments were made to the electoral legislation even if the Venice Commission recommends introducing modifications at least one year before the electoral period. “Regretfully, the implementation of the Electronic Resister of Voters was postponed until 2015. We hope there will be no more delays,” he stated.

Promo-Lex will compile three preliminary reports that will be presented on May 5, June 3 and June 17. The project is supported by the Moldova National Democratic Institute. The monitoring is performed within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.

Source: Info-prim.md