European observers say electoral process managed transparently in Moldova, some legal provisions need to be adjusted

Chisinau, 15 November /MOLDPRES/ - The electoral process was managed transparently, openly and democratically; yet some legal provisions need to be adjusted, in order to be brought in line with international standards. This is the conclusion reached by experts of the Election Monitoring Mission of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which today unveiled preliminary findings on the holding of the presidential polls’ runoff in Moldova.     

The mission head, Peter Novotny, said that the provisions of the Electoral Code would quite vaguely regulate the procedure applicable for the presidential elections’ runoff. “Drawbacks were noticed during the settlement of electoral litigations within the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), as well as in watching other infringements which occurred during the polls. At the same time, the information published on the site of the Commission, especially the one concerning the rate of participation and number of needed votes for the victory of one contender might be considered as deceptive for public,” Novotny said.    

The European observers found out that CEC had increased the number of ballot papers; nevertheless, due to a large number of electors, not all citizens could exercise their right to vote at some polling stations. “At the same time, we notice that neither the students were able to vote at the polling stations from the settlements where they study. We also found out violation of the fundamental rights at polling stations set at mental hospitals and penitentiaries. Also, tendencies of undermining the image of the two electoral candidates for the head of state office have been identified. We also notice the strong partisanship of mass media; also the presence of advertising on the silence day and election day influenced the minds and decisions of voters,” Novotny noted. 

The ENEPO election monitoring mission started working on 9 October 2016. At the same time, four teams of short-term observers were set up to monitor the first round of the polls on 30 October; they monitored the work of polling stations both of the country and from abroad. The final report will be presented in the next two months.    

CEC accredited over 4,600 national and international observers to monitor the direct presidential elections.