Moldovan NGO cites problems with voter lists ahead of election
The imprecision of electoral lists represented one of major concerns expressed by a number of nongovernmental organizations, mass-media and political parties from the Republic of Moldova in the aftermath of parliamentary elections of 5 April. In order to clarify the unfolding and the quality of these processes for the early parliamentary elections of 29 July, the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) implemented a project for monitoring the compilation and verification of voters lists.
The preliminary Report presented by IDOM on 17 July, 2009 stated that out of 33localities monitored under the project by 61 observers from IDOM only in 3 localities [town of Soroca – Liberal National Party (LNP), village of Albota de Jos, Taraclia district – Social Democrat Party (SDP), and the village of Pîrîta, Dubăsari district – Communist Party of RM (CPRM)] the lists of 5 April were not utilized as a basis for voters lists compilation. Thus, the lists issued on the basis of the Ministry of Informational Development (MID) data, which generated doubts and concerns, were re-utilized in 30 localities, a fact that calls in question the quality of voters lists for the early parliamentary elections.
An efficient verification of voters lists would be door-to-door campaign carried out by the Local Public Administrations (LPA’s). IDOM observers reported that in 18 localities under monitoring, the LPA’s affirm that the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) recommended the verification of lists by means of door-to-door campaign, while 14 LPA’s affirm that they had not received such directives.
Out of 30 cases in the Chişinău municipality, where the observers chose to interview persons born before 1940 and who are included on voters lists, in 10 cases it was found that these persons had deceased, sometimes up to 4-5 years earlier.
It was stated that in 9 out of those 293 polling stations in the Chişinău municipality, there are 1854 persons who had withdrawn their residence (including graduates from higher education) or unidentifiable persons, as well as incorrect addresses.
This information and, in particular, the reports submitted by IDOM observers, show that LPA’s do not dispose of sufficient capacity to compile, in 3 weeks only, qualitative voters lists. The responsibility for the quality of lists for the national elections cannot be placed on the LPA’s only. The LPA’s efforts to utilize local registers along with the registers provided by MID did not prove effective, and a growing in voters number compared to the elections of 5 April is notable. In the circumstances in which the voters lists from last Spring elections were qualified as containing an excessively high number of voters, and the utilization of local registers by LPA’s did not reduce this number, the increase of the number of voters queries the quality of the MID database.
Although, after the submittal of voters lists to CEC on 6 July, LPA’s were supposed to continue verification, it was found that in 14 LPA’s this process was not carried out – in 5 such cases it was implied that the lists were already precise [district of Ştefan Vodă – village of Antoneşti (Independent), district of Dubăsari – village of Doroţcaia (CPRM), district of Hînceşti – village of Minjir (CPRM), district of Nisporeni – s. Bărboieni (Independent)].
While the exclusion of persons who migrated abroad from voters lists is declared contrary to legal provisions, it was carried out in 3 localities where the LPA’s are governed by the CPRM, and in another locality, a representative of the same political party demands the exclusion of these persons from the lists.
Additionally, according to our observations, in localities where voters lists were issued anew (based on local registers, rather than the lists of April 5), the number of voters included in the lists of 14 July 2009 was, usually, lower compared to the cases of localities that utilized the lists of 5 April 2009.
Finally, we would like to mention that the process of public information on the necessity to verify the lists was not carried out. In the same time, in order for voters to verify these lists, in accordance with the Electoral Code and the actual electoral calendar, the polling stations are supposed to display the voters lists for public view not later than 14 July 2009, which was carried out on time only in the polling stations of 8 localities.
The present project was implemented within the period of 27 June – 16 July with the support of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Development Program.
IDOM
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