Promo-LEX observers detect infringement of secrete of vote, attempt of bribing, organized carriage of voters in Moldova

Chisinau, 21 October /MOLDPRES/ - The Promo-LEX mission of observers has discovered a number of 778 incidents as to the holding of the presidential elections and the republican constitutional referendum organized on 20 October. Among the most frequent infringements reported, there are the violation of the secret of vote through photographing of the ballot paper, unjustified group voting and attempts of bribing voters. The head of the Prom-LEX Observation Mission, Nicolae Panfil, unveiled data to this effect today,        

According to the observers, 86 out of the 614 polling stations monitored were opened a bit earlier than or after 7:00.    

„The election day was, in general, pretty calm, peaceful; there were no extraordinary situations, just as various possible scenarios conveyed. Fortunately, those scenarios were not fulfilled, which was eventually good, as the citizens were able to vote calmly, without being somehow intimidated by different unforeseen situations,’’ Nicola Panfil said.     

The incidents signaled by Promo-LEX observers regard the infringement of the secret of vote, through photographing of the ballot paper, the showing of the ballot paper with the vote expressed or the defective placement of voting booths (174 cases) deficiencies in electoral lists (76 cases), unjustified group voting (61 cases), unjustified presence of unauthorized people in the precincts of polling stations or in the area of 100 metres (51 cases), the presence of advertising materials, postings, electoral panels nearby polling stations (36 cases), ballot boxes were not sealed according to the legal procedures (31 cases), electoral agitation (30 cases), rumours, attempts or even situations of material or financial rewards provided to voters in exchange for voting (17 cases), organized carriage of voters (17 cases), acts of violence/intimidation of voters or other people (10 cases).     

„We saw these infringements at other ballots too. We saw, including in 2020, at the runoff election, that certain types of infringements had approximately the same weight. Some of them are sanctionable or can be sanctioned. But I do not think that the infringements on the elections day can prompt the validation or invalidation of the result,’’ Nicolae Panfil said.  

The head of the Promo-LEX Observation Mission noted that, on the election day, the observers had been repeatedly notified about situations dealing with the way the ballot papers were provided for the presidential elections and the constitutional referendum, as well as about the way the question on the providing of ballot papers was formulated.  

At the same time, Promo-LEX unveiled also the preliminary results of the parallel counting of votes at the presidential elections and the republican constitutional referendum. ‘’The data is preliminary and can have certain changes, but in principle, the data and results presented by the authorities are confirmed. The error margin of the sample is 3 per cent. If we look and calculate this error margin, then we see that the Promo-LEX data per sample in the country is quite close or confirms the data unveiled by the Central Electoral Commission,’’ Nicolae Panfil said.   

Presidential elections and a republican constitutional referendum on Moldova’s accession to the European Union took place in Moldova on 20 October.