Inter-institutional working group set up for smooth conduct of November 5 elections

Chisinau, 12 Sep. /MOLDPRES/- An inter-institutional working group was set up for holding the local elections on November 5. It has already met in two meetings. Secretary General of Government Artur Mija made the statement today. He noted that any attempt to defraud the election will be severely punished.

The group includes representatives of the Central Electoral Commission, the Audiovisual Council, the Security and Intelligence Service, the National Statistics Bureau, the Public Services Agency, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the Ministry of Justice, the State Tax Service, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization.

"At these meetings, it was decided that the state institutions should provide the necessary support to the Central Electoral Commission for verifying the legality of the financing of electoral campaigns, so that any suspicious donations are detected. Also, intervention procedures were developed to detect attempts to organize electoral concerts, organized transport to polling stations and other situations of violation of electoral rules. The task force will ask the Customs Service and the Service for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering to properly investigate dubious transactions outside the country and prevent the use of these illegal resources for party financing. The government will not admit the use of administrative resources in the campaign and will not allow the involvement of civil servants in electoral actions during working hours. We have already sent an indication in this regard to the representatives of the public administration, so that the involvement of state employees in the campaign is not allowed, during working hours, to monitor the organization of meetings," said Mija.

The official said that dirty money can distort the elections and their outcome. "Even worse is when this money comes from outside, from outside the country, which endangers the very concept of sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova. The state must ensure that the real will of the citizens is respected and guaranteed," the official said. He called on citizens to denounce any attempt at electoral fraud.

The general local elections in the Republic of Moldova will be held on November 5. 898 mayors, over 1,100 district/municipal councilors, as well as over 10,400 city and village councilors would be elected.