Illegal funding of political parties during electoral campaigns, voter bribery, the expansion of mail-in voting, and the adjustment of normative acts in response to the shortcomings identified by authorities during the 2024 elections are the main challenges of this year’s election, stated Pavel Postica, vice president of the Central Election Commission, in an interview on RLIVE TV.
“I believe the main challenge would be adjusting the normative acts to address the shortcomings we observed, or those identified, for example, by the Constitutional Court in its opinion to Parliament, or the observation missions. We are awaiting the OSCE-ODIHR report to see their opinion, and based on all these comments and criticisms, we will try to propose amendments to ensure they are implemented before the elections.
The second major challenge, from my personal perspective, is whether or not to continue the alternative mail-in voting method. At this stage, the Central Election Commission presented its report to Parliament and approved decisions on how well this alternative voting method was applied. We presented this report to the Legal, Appointments, and Immunities Committee, which listened. They practically accepted that it is necessary to continue partial implementation, potentially expanding the number of countries, as we suggested, until the method is universally applied in all countries. However, it is not yet an official bill, and once the project is registered, we will need to prepare the ground, as the law provides the general framework. At the executive level, we, the Central Election Commission, need to establish all the rules of the game and clarify all technical details. This is why it requires time for Parliament to approve the law and time for us to implement the provision.
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The third major challenge would indeed be financing the electoral process. Unfortunately, in the last national elections, various methods of violating the Republic of Moldova’s laws regarding political financing, including dishonest data in financial management reports, incorrect reports, and lack of supporting documents to confirm income or expenses.
Regrettably, we saw cases of voter bribery in 2023, such as through a charity project aimed at a community of 1,000 people. A major investment was made—repairing a road costing hundreds of thousands or millions of lei or building a playground—and none of this money was accounted for, yet it was presented by a political party or electoral competitor as one of their achievements. The law clearly states that per voter in an electoral campaign, you can spend about 24 lei; that’s the spending limit. So, when someone follows the rules and spends, for example, 22 or 23 lei per 1,000 residents, totaling 23,000 lei for the campaign, and someone else spends 100,000 lei, they are not competing under equal conditions. This was voter bribery. In 2024, we saw a different scheme: individual bribery, per person, either through cash or virtual card transactions held by PSB Bank,” said Pavel Postica.
This year’s parliamentary elections may take place from mid-July to early October, according to Pavel Postica, vice president of the Central Election Commission. The exact date will be determined by Parliament, as per the law. This statement was made during the “Realitatea te priveste” program on Friday, February 21, 2025.