THE MEMBERS’ ASSEMBLY OF THE CIVIC COALITION FOR FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS (CALC) SUMS UP THE RESULTS FOR 2021

On 24 March 2022, the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (CALC) held the Assembly of the Members online. The event was attended by 14 of 36 non-commercial organisations that subscribed to the principles of the Charter of Free and Fair Elections.

At the opening of the event, Pavel Postica, Deputy Chairperson of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), expressed his gratitude to CALC members for the partnership of joint activities between CEC and CALC aiming to promote democracy, free, fair and inclusive elections. The Deputy Chairperson also praised the involvement of CALC members in the consultation on CEC proposals to amend the electoral and related laws. ‘I hope that together we will manage to develop the amendments to the electoral and related laws by autumn 2022’, CEC Deputy Chairperson said.

Andrei Brighidin, Director for Development, Monitoring and Evaluation of East Europe Foundation (EEF) mentioned that since the establishment of CALC in 2005, 17 years ago, we are witnessing that the work of the coalition is more dynamic and permanent, and the CALC mandate is broader, expanding its work on the inclusion of disadvantaged persons in the election process, monitoring the funding of the election campaigns and political parties. He reiterated that EEF has always supported CALC members in their efforts to advocate for free and fair elections and believes that it is important for the CALC Members’ Assembly to focus on setting strategic objectives for the next period.

During the event, the Coalition Secretary, Elena Prohnitchi, presented the 2021 Activity Report of the Coalition Secretariat, highlighting the achievements and problematic aspects of last year. CALC achievements in 2021 included: three new members joining the CALC membership, active maintenance of the CALC communication pages, informing stakeholders about the progress of the electoral process (discussions/briefing with development partners), many national and international advocacy activities to amend the legal framework on establishing polling stations abroad and proper organisation of the voting process for the 2021 early parliamentary elections (public calls), observation of the early parliamentary elections and elections to People’s Assembly of ATU Gagauzia, implementing civic education and information campaigns for voters. In addition, Cristina Berlinschii, CALC Communication Coordinator, presented CALC members’ views on how the Coalition’s work in 2021, which were collected in advance using a CALC activity evaluation questionnaire.

A separate session was dedicated to CALC members to present the initiatives launched in 2021 and ongoing in 2022, and to share the lessons learned from activities carried out during the 2021 election processes, including:

• involving CALC organisations in the process of amending the electoral and related laws,
• CALC work in the inter-institutional working group to develop the concept and action plan for the electoral process digitalisation,
• increasing accessibility of the electoral process through the ‘Equal access for all to the polling stations’ campaign,
• peculiarities of the election observation process in ATU Gagauzia.

The members of the Coalition shared their opinions on the objectives the Coalition should focus on in 2022. The discussions were moderated by Sorina Macrinici from LRCM. The participants in the online event suggested several proposals for the future work of the Coalition: participation in the process of amending the electoral and related laws, monitoring the development and implementation of alternative voting tools (electronic voting), promoting inclusion during elections, information and civic education, monitoring the transparency of the political parties funding and strengthening the capacities of CALC members.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (CALC) is a permanent, voluntary entity consisting of 36 non-commercial organisations from the Republic of Moldova. The mission of the Coalition is to contribute to the development of democracy in the Republic of Moldova by promoting and conducting free and fair elections according to the standards of ODIHR (OSCE), Council of Europe and its specialised affiliated institutions. The Coalition is led by a Board assisted by the Secretariat of the Coalition, which together facilitate the largest possible participation of the Moldovan NGOs to achieve the mission of the Coalition at the national and local level.