The Council of Europe, in co-operation with the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova (CEC) and the Center for Continuing Electoral Training in the Republic of Moldova (Training Centre), organised an online round table on “Awareness raising with electoral stakeholders and media on countering misuse of administrative resources in electoral period” on 4 June 2021.
In his opening address, Mr. William Massolin, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, stressed that this event offers an excellent opportunity to national authorities, electoral actors, media and potential voters to discuss and jointly build up a unified approach towards misuse of administrative resources in electoral processes, and agree on “zero” tolerance. This will contribute to align the Moldovan democratic processes with the Council of Europe standards that determine the notion, cases and area of countering misuse of administrative resources in electoral processes.
Dr. Dorin Cimil, Head of the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova and Dr. Doina Bordeinu, Director of the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training within the CEC, welcomed the participants and highlighted that the event gives a chance to discuss ways to combating this negative phenomena, including through amendment of the legislation in order to set out clear provisions and sanctions relating to the misuse of administrative resources, in particular during electoral campaigns.
The Round table brought well-known experts in that area –such as Mr. Richard Barrett (Ireland), member of the Venice Commission, Yves-Marie Doublet (France) , one of the main contributors to the relative CoE toolkit, Mariana Kalughin local expert, who contributed developing an on-line course On countering misuse of administrative resources in electoral process placed on the E-learning platform of the Training Centre, as well as representatives of the Promo-LEX Association who shared recorded cases of the misuse of administrative resources in the Republic of Moldova during its previous election observation missions.
Over 30 participants and an important number of followers on Facebook representing electoral stakeholders, media and potential voters, learned how to cope with countering misuse of the administrative resources in electoral period in line with the best national and international standards.
At the end of the round table, Mrs. Rodica Sîrbu, Head of Direction of Communication, Public Relations and Media, CEC, made a CALL to electoral competitors and media representatives to sign the Code of Conduct on the conduct and reflection of election campaigns in the 11 July 2021 early parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova.
This important event was organised and implemented by the Council of Europe within the Project "Improving electoral practices in the Republic of Moldova, Phase II"
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