Democrats of Moldova suspected of illegally collecting signatures for candidate Marian Lupu. CEC comes up with comments

Victoria Dodon
05/09/2016
Foto: IPN

Several candidates in presidential elections from 30 October suspect of illegally collecting signatures for candidate Marian Lupu. The Democratic Party collected 29,000 signatures in support of Marian Lupu in just 24 hours after receiving the lists. While Democrats argue that it is about a good organization of collectors of signatures, the Central Election Commission said that all discussions are part of the political struggle between candidates.

Maia Sandu, leader of the Party Action and Solidarity argues that such a performance would not be possible without violating certain rules. "First, there is suspicion that representatives of DP serving key positions in state structures, put pressure on the employees of these structures to undersign. The second issue relates to authentication of lists with signatures by mayors. Representatives of the DP forced them to work overtime on Friday or on Saturday that is a day off”, said leader of PAS in a press conference held on Sunday, September 4.  

Maia Sandu posted on his Facebook page a day before, a calculation that concluded that a collector of signatures from DP needed 3.36 minutes to convince a person to sign documents, to check the data and complete the list with his personal data. This should be investigated by the General Prosecutor’s office and she would file a complaint to this effect.

In the extraordinary meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC) on September 4, the independent candidate Oleg Brega asked CEC members to remove Marian Lupu from the election campaign. "Lupu received the lists on Friday, September 2, at 14.00 and three hours left till the workday ends. It is impossible to collect 25,000 signatures in just three hours,   in 29 settlements. This shows that the mayors of 29 municipalities have worked overtime, at night or on Saturday, which is a day off. CEC will probably validate these lists, as Marian Lupu should be the first in the ballot. I think that the elections are compromised and I do not have any expectation of the Central Election Commission ", said Brega.

In turn, the Democrats ground the high number of signatures collected in a short period of time through good organization and over 50,000 active party members.

„ Democratic Party has over 1,000 primary party organizations in all localities. The preparation of collection of signatures is not done in the days when the signatures should be collected, but at least two weeks before them. A good organization, the preparation of collectors, support teams, their training and so on are very important. You don’t start looking for them while you are collecting signatures and train them under way. It is very important the way you organize the collection point, so that the procedure will take the least time possible. The local public authorities should be informed right away the legal provisions allow you, in order to check the collected signatures .It is important to have a numerous and very active and well-trained youth organization, including at the central office, ready to work non-stop in order to receive the documents in the shortest period of time”, said MP Sergiu Sirbu, deputy-chairman of PD.

Representatives of CEC will develop their view over the validation of lists of signatures within seven days since they were submitted to the Commission. "I have never commented on actions relating to political struggle. Maia Sandu and Oleg Brega’s statements are part of their promotional campaigns in presidential elections", said for Anticoruptie.md Iurie Ciocan, CEC member.

Meanwhile, independent candidate Roman Mihaes, lawyer and political commentator, came to CEC for registration of the initiative group in his support in presidential elections.  

 

 

 

 

Victoria Dodon
05/09/2016




Textele de pe pagina web a Centrului de Investigații Jurnalistice www.anticoruptie.md sunt realizate de jurnaliști, cu respectarea normelor deontologice și sunt protejate de dreptul de autor. Preluarea textelor știrilor și a investigațiilor jurnalistice se realizează în limita maximă de 500 de semne. În mod obligatoriu, în cazul paginilor web (portaluri, agenții, instituţii media sau bloguri) trebuie indicat şi linkul direct la articolul preluat de pe www.anticoruptie.md în primul alineat, iar în cazul posturilor de radio și TV – se citează obligatoriu sursa.

Preluarea integrală a textelor se poate realiza doar în condiţiile unui acord prealabil semnat cu Centrul de Investigații Jurnalistice.



Follow us on Telegram

Comments