Documents

To provide an outlook for the upcoming 2020 elections in Georgia, ISFED describes in this policy paper the current political deadlock in the country caused by the ruling party failing to vote for the introduction of a proportional electoral system. ISFED analyzes a potential solution for this deadlock surrounding the electoral system and necessary changes in the Election Code and political party finance regulations to ensure that the 2020 parliamentary elections are conducted in a democratic, free and fair manner.

The parliamentary vote on the draft Electoral Code planned for this week has been postponed. Earlier, EPDE members Civic Network OPORA and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine raised serious concerns about some provisions of the draft and pointed to a number of shortcomings resulting from last minute amendments to the draft. This policy alert analyses these shortcomings and calls on the Verkhovna Rada to present the final draft Electoral Code to the public in a timely manner in order to ensure transparency.

According to the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”, these elections do not meet international standards of democratic and free elections for a number of reasons: lack of equal access to state media for all candidates, lack of impartial election commissions, use of administrative resource in favor of pro-government candidates, numerous cases of coercion of voters to participate in early voting, and intransparent vote counting procedures. 

In general, local executive committees created favorable conditions for election campaigning and the number of places for holding public events increased in comparison with the elections of 2016. However, election campaigning was low key and administrative resources were widely used to promote the pro-government candidates, while non-affiliated and opposition candidates reported that their political campaigns were censored and there were cases of bans on broadcasting the campaign speeches of opposition candidates.

Promo-LEX observed that the opening and closing of polling stations on 03.11. was regular. One issue observed multiple times was that 27% of the PEBs continued to ignore the rule that stipulates that one member of the bureau is to display the ballots to all the participants in the counting process. Observed incidents were once again not of a significant nature, but included cases of unjustified and unauthorized persons being present within 100 m. of the PS as well as in the PS (25); presence of advertising materials, posters, electoral displays within 100 m. of the PS (21); and difficulties for the operation of the SIAS Elections system (20); organized transportation of voters (13). The results of parallel vote counting for the post of general mayor of Chisinau municipality confirmed the percentage offered by the CEC.

This coalition of election monitors in Moldova, including our member Promo-LEX, observed the following issues throughout the General local elections and by-elections: limitations of the freedom of voter information, the hindering of work of election management bodies, inconsistent candidate registration practices, a lack of impartial media, and the obstruction of the work of national observers.

Opposition candidates have been censored during their campaigning and have had their registrations revoked for criticising authorities, reports the election observation campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”. Many appeals of candidates whose registration was refused have yet to be considered despite the period for this having already passed and only one appeal was successful. Cases of abuse of administrative resources for election campaigning by the pro-government candidates have been recorded, as well as creating obstacles to independent and opposition candidates in their campaigning events.