Documents

On 29 December 2020, amendments to Armenia’s Law on Political Parties were passed with widespread consensus following a period of extreme polarization which provide for a substantial increase in public financing of political parties, while increasing the transparency of party donations, prohibiting corporate donations, and decreasing the upper limit for individual donations. The amendments include minimal requirements of internal democracy within the organization of political parties. Alert available in English (Doc1) and Russian (Doc2).

Concerning last year’s presidential election in Moldova, Promo-LEX Association concludes that election contenders avoided reporting all campaign expenditures, there was a record number of hate speech, use of administrative resources, bribing of voters, and a high rate of complaints not accepted by the CEC and courts. In some instances, observers were restricted from accessing voter lists and there were isolated cases of observer intimidation by law enforcement and electoral officials on election day.

Recently passed amendments to the ‘foreign agents’ law in Russia increases the number of organizations at risk of being labelled as ‘foreign agents’ and would force election candidates who received funding or other resources from an organization or person registered as a ‘foreign agent’ to also label themselves as a ‘foreign agent’. There is serious reason to assume that the recent proposed amendments target specific individuals and organizations and have been drawn up at least in part with a view to the 2021 State Duma election. 

The second round of elections cemented the victory of the Georgian Dream (GD). Despite the opposition boycotting the elections, violations persisted. The first session of the Parliament convened in absence of the opposition and parties saw some annulling of their mandates. The DG pledge for an early election if there was one percent deviation in its favour, did not go forward. The statistical analysis corroborated some of the observers’ findings, highlighting trends of discrepancies. The court practices also indicated political bias and undue consideration of complaints and appeals.

The “all-Russian voting” on President Putin’s proposed constitutional amendments, which would allow him to stay in power until 2036, was held between 25 June and 1 Jul 2020. Since the “all-Russian voting” lacked legal provisions and a constitutional status, a new legal framework was created, which, among others, did not foresee any international monitoring. However, “international experts” were invited to effectively endorse the “all-Russian voting”.

Moldova's presidential election runoff had a high voter engagement. During voting day, certain polling stations abroad ran out of ballots and thus did not allow voters to cast their vote. Organized transportation of voters from Transnistria and intimidation of election observers was also again present during the second round of the election. Promo-LEX’s parallel vote count largely correlated with the official results announced by the CEC and the vote count was conducted in a quick and calm manner.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections in Moldova, to which EPDE member Promo-LEX contributes its election observation findings, has stated that the presidential elections of 1 and 15 November were "partially correct and free". This coalition of Moldovan CSOs and media organizations further state that several voters were unable to exercise their right to vote; the election campaigns was marked by hate speech and disinformation, as well as an unbalanced media coverage.