Promo-LEX Report: In the first round of the election campaign candidates committed a worrying high number of violations

12 June 2015 // Chisinau – 164 meetings of election candidates with voters, 70 concerts, 42 cases of giving away electoral gifts and 39 cases of using public resources – these are the main violations revealed in the Third Report of the Observation Mission of the General Local Election, presented today by Promo-LEX. The report reflects the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova during 21 May – 10 June 2015, on the basis of the findings made by Promo-LEX observers.

According to the Promo-LEX Association Report, during the election campaign for the General Local Elections of 14 June 2015, a worrying high number of violations committed by electoral stakeholders were found.

“It seems that the electoral stakeholders woke up from hibernation. Thus, we found that 10 parties, one electoral block and dozens of independent candidates organized various electioneering activities. Comparing to the previous reporting period, when only a few candidates initiated such activities, this time we noticed a spectacular increase in the number of electoral activities. The candidates used the traditional launching of election campaigns, meetings with voters, electoral concerts, distribution of electoral advertising, outdoor and media advertising, organization of sports activities, electoral tents etc.”, stated Aliona Onofrei, electoral analyst of Promo-LEX Observation Mission.

In addition, Promo-LEX found that only 16 election candidates filed their financial statements to CEC, and 15 reported revenue and expenses. According to the observers, 1554 citizens contributed during the reporting period with funds to the electoral budgets of political parties and electoral blocks. They donated approximately MDL 36.88 million.  The sources of funding stated as membership fees are still unclear.

“Overall, the election candidates reported MDL 51.21 million to CEC, with 76% of the reported expenses being spent for advertising. At the same time, no election contestant reported any rewards as expenses. The largest expenses were reported by PDM – MDL 17.30 million, accounting for 29.21% of the set threshold”, stated Pavel Postica, head of the Promo-LEX Observation Mission.

The Promo-LEX observers found that the logistical arrangements of polling stations are still a serious problem. At the same time, though the Ongoing Training Centre on Electoral Matters (OTCEM) reported 33 workshops for electoral officers, the number of trained people is still very low.

This is the last Monitoring Report of Promo-LEX from the first round of the 2015 General Local Elections.  The next report will be published on 26 June 2015, before the second round of voting.

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 Ciochină, 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: simion.ciochina@promolex.md