At least 13 Moldovan parties violated election rules, says watchdog
Ahead of the November 5 local elections in Moldova, the election watchdog Promo-LEX has released a report finding a number of irregularities in the candidate selection process.
The report found that at least 13 parties had already publicly announced their candidates for mayor of Chisinau, even though the formal process for nominating candidates did not begin until September 6.
Promo-LEX said that this could violate the principle of equal opportunity for candidates and could also lead to the misuse of election campaign funds.
The report also found that four parties - PAS, PSRM, PSDE, and PPPDA - had engaged in pre-election campaigning activities, even though the official campaign period does not begin until October 6.
In addition, Promo-LEX found that two local authorities - the Chisinau and Balti mayor's offices - had abused their administrative resources for electoral purposes.
In both cases, the authorities had produced promotional materials that were clearly intended to boost the popularity of the mayors, even though these materials should have been considered part of the authorities' regular public relations efforts.
Promo-LEX said that it would continue to monitor the elections and would report any further irregularities.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
