The official election period for Moldova’s September 28 parliamentary elections begins on July 14—a date often mistaken for the start of the election campaign itself. Understanding the difference between these two phases is crucial, says Pavel Postica, Vice President of the Central Election Commission (CEC). In an interview with IPN, Postica outlines what sets this election cycle apart, what legal provisions come into force from July 14, and what new technologies will be used for the first time to ensure transparency and trust in the process.
The election period is starting. Please explain to the general public what this election period means, especially as there is usually confusion between the election period and the election campaign
Technically speaking, the Electoral Code provides for several deadlines that relate to elections. One or the main one, indeed, is the start of the election period – so when, in fact, the central electoral authority actually starts most of the electoral procedures for the upcoming poll. And certain restrictions, limitations, special regulations, etc. are linked to the beginning of this. And the second term is the election campaign, which lasts exclusively 30 days. It also falls within this electoral period. The electoral period for parliamentary elections begins on July 14 and ends when the Constitutional Court validates the election results.
So we know when it starts, but we don’t know how long it takes. Depending on how quickly we are able to process the results, we will be able to present the report to the Constitutional Court, and already on the basis of the number of disputes that will eventually be and the timeframe within which the Constitutional Court will examine them. Then we will know exactly how long the electoral period actually lasted.
But we know for sure that the election campaign lasts 30 days, starting on August 28 and ending on the Saturday before election day. In other words, during that period, the electoral competitors, the electoral contestants, who will be registered, are entitled to carry out electioneering. Until August 28, political parties are entitled to conduct regular political campaigning without the urge to vote for the election contestant. So they can promote themselves, they can talk to citizens, they can present certain information, just without urging citizens to vote for them. That would be a very fine line.
It is quite complicated to distinguish between a campaign of electoral propaganda and ordinary political promotion, but as we have done every time, we will try to make this distinction in this election.
For the citizen, when he hears “vote for me”, “elect me” – this is already electoral propaganda. Otherwise, the promotional campaign – that “I am the best”, “the most specialized”, “the most professional” – is somehow just political publicity, as long as it is not followed by the next urge to vote for him.
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In the electoral period we have approved a calendar program in which all deadlines are explained – when it starts and when it is finalized – so that it is clear for all actors in the electoral process when certain things are going to happen.
Probably the most important is the nomination and registration of candidates, which starts on July 20 and ends around August 20. So during this period, political parties, possibly independent candidates, electoral blocs are entitled to submit to the Central Electoral Commission for examination the set of documents for the registration of candidates.
We have already seen in the public space names launched by various political parties, that they will eventually appear on the lists of the electoral contestant or political parties rather – this is not official. So, once again, officially the set of documents that is submitted to the Central Electoral Commission is to be submitted starting July 20.
Innovations for the September 28 elections
What’s new for this election?
Indeed, there are going to be some innovations, or rather things that we have tested in the past, in previous elections. First, we are talking about the electronic collection of lists for independent candidates. We will also try to promote this mechanism in this election for any independent candidates who would like to run. We will try to implement for the first time the issue of the electronic voters’ list in polling stations abroad, for the additional electronic voters’ list. That is, where the citizen comes to the polling station and has to go through a rather lengthy process, during which the electoral officer has to transcribe all the data from his or her identity card.
In this way we will apply scanners that will scan the ID card. Automatically the information, through the scanner, will be downloaded into the electronic electoral roll and the citizen will sign on a special tablet with a special electronic pen. In this way we will try to save some of that time and perhaps reduce some of those queues that were at polling stations where priority voters were voting on supplementary lists.
I reiterate, we tested this mechanism in the previous elections and it performed quite well. We will try to implement it this time as well. And, last but not least, in relation to postal voting, we have somehow divided, even visually on the page of the Central Electoral Commission, the pre-registration page, these two separate procedures, the ordinary registration, which is not compulsory for those who are abroad, and the compulsory registration exclusively for those citizens, exclusively from those 10 countries where postal voting will be partially implemented again, which is a compulsory procedure. So is digital. And these are pretty much the, shall we say, digital innovations in this election.
What challenges are we expecting this year, based on previous experiences?
Just recently, the Central Electoral Commission organized the international conference “Money in Politics”, to which we invited colleagues from different countries in the region who came with presentations about their situation and we saw one thing very clearly – political finance issues remain a challenge not only for the Republic of Moldova, but also for other countries. Foreign meddling and interference remains a challenge for the Republic of Мoldova, but also for our neighbors. Beyond the financing side, the Central Electoral Commission has also identified five other areas that we are aware are going to be quite complicated for us to manage. That is why we have asked for support from colleagues from other state institutions, we have created interdepartmental, interinstitutional working groups, so that we can get assistance, eventually, when we need it.
So the obvious first group – political financing. The second group is about ensuring cybersecurity and digitization of the electoral process. The third major group relates to verifying the candidates’ compliance with the rigors of Article 16 of the Electoral Code, whether they have the right to be elected, whether they do not have certain prohibitions, either convictions by the courts or final decisions, on certain prohibitions. So all these things have to happen very quickly, because all the candidates come with the set of documents and within a very limited period of seven days, the Central Electoral Commission will have to expose itself, but until then we have to do the checks. Bearing in mind that, for example, on the first day, traditionally, a lot of candidates, 5-6 political parties, each with a list of a hundred and… people, we have a huge flow of work at the same time.
The polling stations abroad, the polling stations in the Transnistrian region, rather, the setting up of these polling stations and the exercise of the vote by the citizens of these regions. And obviously the coverage of the elections in the media, online, but also political advertising. These are schematically, generically speaking, the six working groups that we have set up, which, from my personal point of view, correspond to those basic challenges that we will have in this election. It is not excluded that we will have new challenges, that is why we will try to be ready to face them all.
Does this working group include law enforcement and other institutions?
It certainly does. It just depends on the subject. If we are talking about political financing, for example, we obviously include representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the General Inspectorate of Police, the National Anti-Corruption Center, the State Tax Service. Obviously, representatives of the Central Electoral Commission, specialized control and supervision directorates.
When we talk about digitization and cybersecurity, obviously there are colleagues from STISC, AGE, ASP, so those institutions that provide us with this support.
Voting by voters on the left bank of the Nistru and abroad
In particular talking about polling stations for the Transnistrian region, but also those abroad – how do we ensure that voting there is fair and secure?
It is quite complicated to expound on this subject at this stage. What is certain is that we, but also with the support of our partners and colleagues in civil society, will do everything possible to conduct voter information campaigns in these regions or dedicated to our citizens living in this region or abroad. We will try to go including possible meetings with our citizens in the diaspora, maybe even with our colleagues on the left of the Dniester, obviously on the territory controlled by the constitutional authorities, so that we can answer those questions that are there and make sure that they know all the rights that they can enjoy when they participate in the voting.
The role of observers in the electoral process
About observers, their importance, understanding the public, what is the purpose of national and international observers?
First of all I must mention one very precise thing – previously, observers were also political parties or electoral contestants, now the notion has changed and observers are only those persons who are delegated by entities, who have no interest in the electoral process, so they are not electoral contestants.
This does not mean that the electoral contestants cannot also follow the electoral process, only that they follow it through their representatives in the electoral bodies, who have exactly the same rights as the observer – that is, they can request documents, they can attend any meeting of the electoral body, they can request information and receive this information, take photo, video recordings, document certain issues that they consider as possible misconduct. So the observer does the same thing, except that the observer is not politically interested, they are presumed to be neutral in relation to the electoral authority and in relation to the electoral competitors.
Indeed, observers can be of two categories – national and international. National, that is entities that are registered in the Republic of Moldova, and international – appointed by international missions or organizations. We often send invitations to international observers. These are our colleagues from the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. We are members of several international election management networks. Obviously we have invited our colleagues from these networks as well.
From what I understand, it seems that we will also have a mission from the International Organization of the Francophonie, which will come to the Republic of Moldova. So these are the differences and the status. Each mission, once it has completed its observation mandate, as a rule, draws up certain reports, certain analyses of the electoral process and all those interested can access them and form a neutral, let us say, neutral view of the electoral process.
At this stage, the Central Election Commission has already credited the first observers, at least from two national organizations. These are colleagues from the Promo-LEX Association, which traditionally follows the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova, and the Union of Moldovan Lawyers.
What information and voter education campaigns will be run to increase voter turnout?
I believe that even this interview can be seen as part of information campaigns, as long as the public follows us. But obviously, the Central Election Commission has already completed an information campaign which it has conducted in every district. We went on the ground with our colleagues from the Central Electoral Commission, we met with the representatives of the local public administration, the people interested in the electoral process, we explained to them the main provisions, possibly new ones, of the Electoral Code and we tried to answer those questions that the public has. We finalized this campaign recently.
But apart from that, we will run information campaigns already during the election period. We will focus on social networks, we will explain to everyone what their rights are, what are the rules for exercising the right to vote, what are the possible prohibitions, what are those things that are forbidden in the electoral process. What are or can be the sanctions for violating these prohibitions.
We will come back to these topics in due course. Thank you very much for your time!
Thank you for the invitation!
Irina Botu, IPN