EU supports the efforts of the civil society to improve the new Electoral Code of the Republic of Moldova

The plenary session of the Parliament has debated and voted on 28 July 2022 the draft of the new Electoral Code in the first reading. The Promo-LEX Association welcomes the commitment of authorities to improve the electoral and related legislative framework in accordance with international good practices, but it states that there is still room for improvement of the new Electoral Code.

In this regard, Promo-LEX sent for the examination of the Legislature about 70 recommendations. The first round of public hearings was organised on 26 July by the Legal Committee for Appointments and Immunities.

Promo-LEX drew the Legislature’s attention to such aspects as:

• the need to clarify situations, in which elections could be organised in two days;
• the regulation by the Electoral Code of elections held for the authorities of the ATU of Gagauzia;
• revising the right to confirm or deny the legality of local elections granted to constituency electoral councils;
• improving the mechanism for appointing members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) so as to ensure independence of the institution from political factor; the need to consolidate the role of observers;
• detailing the provisions on oversight and control of political parties’ finances and financing of electoral campaigns;
• setting up polling stations for voters from the Transnistrian region and for those from abroad, etc.

Additionally, Promo-LEX made specific recommendations on improvement of judicial procedures, organisation of referendums and parliamentary elections by reducing the electoral threshold, on improvement of local elections by organising elections on a predetermined day.

It should be noted that, during 2021-2022, the Promo-LEX Association supported the activity of the CEC in drafting the new Electoral Code. 419 recommendations were collected and analysed during the stage of public consultations organised on the CEC’s platform, of which 278 (66%) were presented by Promo-LEX, and about 55% of them were partially or fully accepted. The recommendations have been developed based on the experience gained in 23 national election observation missions organised in the more than 13 years of activity in the field.

The activity of the Promo-LEX Association, aimed at improving the Electoral Code and related legislation, takes place as part of the “Advocacy for a new Electoral Code in Moldova” project, implemented with the financial support of the European Union and the International Organization of La Francophonie, as well as the “Democracy, Transparency and Accountability” Programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).