Changes to the Electoral Code one month before the general local elections could set precedents, substantially affecting citizens’ confidence in the electoral process, “any interference will inevitably bring with it suspicions of political interests, consequences such as distrust in the electoral process, disruption of electoral bodies”, points out Nicolae Panfil, head of Promo-LEX’s general local elections monitoring mission, in an interview for ZdG.

At the same time, Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu, asked by ZdG, says that precedents are set to counter illegally funded parties that undermine national security, and Parliament had to act quickly to prevent members of the unconstitutionally declared Shor party from entering the electoral race.

The 4 October electoral regulations, initiated by Parliament following the Constitutional Court’s (CC) declaration of the unconstitutionality of the restriction on the participation of the Shor party in the elections, were designed to prevent party members from standing in the 5 November 2023 general local elections.

According to Nicolae Panfil, the party declared unconstitutional “was one that in practically all elections came out with noises, came out with problems. And this context certainly overlaps with what we have in these elections, because we see that, apparently, the Constitutional Court’s ruling was not enough to prevent or to stop the not exactly correct, legal, honest financing of electoral campaigns and political parties. And here, I think, was the intention of the legislator and the authorities to come up with a solution to this problem,” he said.

The same reason is also invoked by the Speaker of Parliament, Igor Grosu, who stresses that the Shor party “is a criminal group”. “Bandits have no place in Moldovan politics, especially in electoral processes. […] Any bandit, any individual who deliberately comes to the electoral campaign to buy, lie, cheat, and do this in the interest of another state, in the interest of the Russian Federation, and this is an attack on national security, they must be put to shame. These people should not be allowed to lead, to influence political processes in Moldova”, says Igor Grosu.

Changes to the Electoral Code a month before the elections could set a precedent, according to Nicolae Panfil, “This can be invoked any time in the future – ‘Look, others have done it before us’ “.

The Promo-LEX programme director noted that these changes, which run counter to international principles and standards, could undermine citizens’ confidence in the electoral process, “We have recommended to Parliament, because we are already in the election campaign, to refrain from passing any more laws, because any interference will inevitably bring with it suspicions of political interests, consequences such as distrust in the electoral process, disruption of electoral bodies that have to do their job and do not know where to look, left or right, when candidates come to register. Voters are obviously also confused because they no longer understand what is happening. All this can significantly affect the election campaign and the election results,” said Nicolae Panfil.

The Speaker, on the other hand, argues that the precedents are aimed at preventing criminal groups from entering politics, stressing that emergency situations require urgent action, “Those who say that it had to be individualised, I agree. But those who make these decisions need to think that we don’t have 100 years to live before the elections. To individualise them, to go through all the procedures, all the courts, another three years will pass. If you take that approach, we’re going to get eaten by these crooks. We have taken the risk. […] In concrete situations we have to act courageously, quickly,” he told ZdG.

The limited time, as an argument for changes in electoral legislation a month before the elections, was also mentioned by the Promo-Lex programme director, pointing out that the decision to declare the party unconstitutional, “Șor” only came in June. However, according to Nicolae Panfil, the ruling party risks endangering “the free, fair, democratic nature of the elections. […] We are more in favour of international solutions, in the sense that we want strong institutions to deal with corruption, including electoral and political corruption”.

On Tuesday, 3 October, the CC declared unconstitutional the provision restricting the right to be elected of persons who, at the time of the CC ruling on the declaration of unconstitutionality of a political party, were members of the executive body of the political party declared unconstitutional, as well as persons holding elective office in the political party declared unconstitutional, for a period of 5 years from the date of the ruling of the Constitutional Court.

A few hours after the approval in first reading, on Wednesday, 4 October, members of the Chisinau Parliament voted on the second reading of the Electoral Code. Thus, deputies decided that people who are “suspected, accused or charged of committing crimes that were mentioned by the Constitutional Court as an argument in the context of the declaration of unconstitutionality of the political party” will not be able to run in the general local elections on 5 November. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has drawn up a list of persons who cannot be registered as electoral contestants. The list includes the names of more than 100 people who will not be able to stand for election, which cannot be made public, citing personal data and the presumption of innocence.

President Maia Sandu promulgated the amendments to the Electoral Code on Wednesday 4 October.

According to the Vienna Commission, “The restriction affects a large group of people, making them collectively responsible for the illegitimate activities of the party to which they belong, thus lacking individualisation and therefore guarantees of a fair trial”.