Electoral corruption can only be stopped through the active involvement of political parties. Party leaders must publicly denounce such practices and help citizens understand that electoral bribery fuels systemic corruption. It was the central message of guests on RLIVE TV’s Consens National program.
Nicolae Panfil, Program Director at the Promo-LEX Association, expressed hope that in their pursuit of power, political parties would also find time to engage with citizens on key democratic principles—integrity, free elections, and the risks of foreign interference.
“We expect political actors to get actively involved—because democracy and mandates don’t happen automatically. Votes don’t appear in ballot boxes unless you engage the people. I truly hope that, during this campaign, political parties will talk to citizens and not let externally controlled political forces, aligned with the Russian Federation, dominate the discourse. In the last campaign, only two or three parties publicly condemned electoral corruption. The rest chose silence,” said Panfil.
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Mihail Crivorucenco, Head of the Public Order Department within the Police, stated that law enforcement officers have undergone training to detect and prevent electoral crimes. He emphasized that the police aim not just to punish, but to prevent misconduct.
“We carry out prevention activities—not just investigate and respond to complaints. We’ve worked directly with communities to raise awareness that transporting voters, photographing ballots, or committing other election-related offenses is illegal. We’ve also held information sessions with local stakeholders to ensure these messages reach the entire population,” Crivorucenco noted.
Following last year’s presidential elections and referendum, police investigated over 200,000 individuals for activities linked to electoral corruption. Authorities filed more than 20,000 reports, imposing fines that exceeded 400 million lei in total.
Under current legislation, passive electoral corruption is punishable by fines ranging from 25,000 to 37,500 lei.
📢 This content was produced as part of the “Vote Freely and Report Electoral Corruption!” campaign, implemented by the Promo-LEX Association with the support of the Strengthening Democratic Resilience in Moldova project, funded by Norway, Canada, Sweden, and Denmark, and implemented by UNDP Moldova. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of Promo-LEX, UNDP, the UN, or the donor governments.
