HOW INCLUSIVE ARE THE GENERAL LOCAL ELECTIONS OF 20 OCTOBER 2019
The Final Monitoring Report in terms of inclusion of disabled persons and persons of Roma ethnicity has been launched today. The Report has been developed under the auspice of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, under the Project „Civil Society Advocacy for Inclusive and Fair Elections in the Republic of Moldova, in Line with the EU and OSCE/ODIHR Recommendations, and Human Rights Commitments”, implemented by East-European Foundation, in partnership with the Partnership for Development Center, Piligrim Demo and Tarna Rom, in collaboration with INFONET Alliance. The Project is financed by the European Union, and co-financed by Sweden.
Main findings of the monitoring reports:
Level of empowerment and representation of persons of Roma ethnicity:
The Mission can state a low information level of persons of Roma ethnicity about the voting procedures and electoral opponents. A good part of the voters of Roma ethnicity encountered difficulties in identifying the electoral opponents and understanding the voting procedures. On Election Day, this fact generated situations when Roma persons requested support from the members of Precinct Electoral Bureaus of Polling Stations to understand the information included in the ballot paper.
The Monitoring Mission highlights a limited transparency of the lists of candidates and of the information about candidates’ positioning in the lists. The observers identified situations in which the candidates of Roma ethnicity didn’t know their registration number in the list of candidates. The electoral bodies and opponents made insufficient efforts to bring to the knowledge of voters and interested persons the information about the positioning on the lists and the profile of candidates.
Roma people are not represented in the District Councils or in Mayor’s Offices. No candidate of Roma ethnicity was elected as Local Councilor of Level II or Mayor. As a result, the degree of political representation of Roma people at these levels has remained unchanged, i.e. similar to the previous general local elections.
Persons of Roma ethnicity are under-represented in Local Councils. In 8 localities densely populated by Roma people there were elected 12 persons of Roma ethnicity as Local Councilors of Level I (2 Municipal Councilors, 4 Town Councilors, 3 Commune Councilors, and 3 Village Councilors). The profile of the latter is as follows: 10 candidates are delegated by 4 electoral opponents; 2 persons are elected as Independent Councilors; 6 are women, and 6 are men, respectively.
The geographic area of political representation of localities densely populated by Roma people has remained asymmetrical. All the persons of Roma ethnicity who were elected as Local Councilors of Level I are located in the North and Center of the Republic of Moldova. No case of electing a Local Councilor of Level I (person of Roma ethnicity) has been documented in the Southern part of the Republic of Moldova so far.
We call upon the political parties to facilitate the participation of Roma people in both the decision making structures and as candidates to eligible positions. We request from the elected/delegated representatives of electoral opponents within the local public authorities of levels I and II to do the following in the post-electoral period: (a) to address the current problems faced by Roma population in a planned manner, (b) evaluate the degree of social and economic marginalization of this vulnerable group, (c) identify the causes generating these problems, and (d) develop strategic interventions and include on the Agenda of Mayor’s offices and Local Councils of Level I and Level II. Last but not least, we recommend the electoral bodies and opponents to insure access to information about the list and profile of candidates for Local Councils.