29/11/2024 Election observation | Standing Committee
According to the election observation report presented by Petra Bayr (Austria, SOC) to the PACE Standing Committee meeting in Luxembourg, the presidential election and constitutional referendum in the Republic of Moldova were conducted in a highly polarised political environment, “marked by unprecedented attempts to corrupt the electoral process”. Despite significant external interference, particularly from the Russian Federation, “the Moldovan authorities and people succeeded in organising democratic and well-managed elections”.
The report also underlines that malign practices such as vote-buying, illegitimate funding and misuse of administrative resources “had undermined the integrity of the electoral process”, and that disinformation campaigns on social media “had contributed to an imbalance in an otherwise relatively open media environment”.
The PACE delegation made a series of recommendations in the report, and called on the Moldovan authorities to, in particular, investigate electoral irregularities; combat foreign interference and disinformation; improve the electoral legal framework and election administration; guarantee unbiased and equal media coverage of all electoral candidates and combat hate speech during campaigns; and strengthen campaign financing transparency.