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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.

Ahead of this weekend’s run-off between incumbent President Dodon and Maia Sandu for the presidency, Promo-LEX published its final report on the conduct of the first round of the presidential election in Moldova. Promo-LEX’s parallel vote tabulation and analysis of almost all Vote Counting Protocols across Moldova do not show any significant discrepancies with the official data reported by the Central Election Commission. However, Promo-LEX expresses its concern over several recorded incidents.

Opora reports that according to preliminary results, local elections were highly competitive and generally complied with legislation. Violations were specific to certain communities and could have an impact on the results there but were not centrally planned. However, massive violations and incidents of non-compliance of election and campaign procedures, attempts to bribe voters, misuse of administrative resources, and abuse of the procedure for changing one’s electoral address have been recorded.

OPORA announced in its press conference on the eve of local elections that despite unequal distribution of anti-COVID provisions to polling stations and election commissions, there is still time for local authorities to fully comply with the standards set to counteract COVID19 during the elections. The last few days before the election was accompanied by typical abuses and violations, and incidents of foreign interference were investigated by OPORA and other experts.

Two weeks ahead of the presidential election, Promo-LEX reports increasingly more cases that can qualify as use of administrative resources, and an increase by 2.6 times in cases involving hate speech and incitement to discrimination. During the monitoring period (30 September – 13 October), there has been an upsurge in electoral events, as well as in cases where the restrictions imposed by the Extraordinary Territorial Commissions of Public Health were not observed.

Continuous amendments to the Election Code during an ongoing election go against Venice Commission recommendations and cause legal uncertainty for the local elections in Ukraine. Illegal campaigning was recorded as the most common electoral misconduct in the past month and unclear explanations by the Central Election Commission on new procedures may cause confusion and threaten the election result. More on this in OPORA's second interim monitoring report of the local elections. 

Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) co-published this report with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung on how to organize elections safely during the pandemic with specific recommendations for the local elections in Ukraine.