DP COMPLAINS TO FOREIGN DIPLOMATS THAT PROMO-LEX REPORTS ARE NOT OBJECTIVE

The ruling Democratic Party has decided to draw the attention of the foreign diplomatic corps working in Moldova to the reports coming from the Promo-LEX Association concerning its monitoring of the ongoing electoral process in the republic. The Democrats regard the reports to be not objective.

They wrote in a press release on Thursday that DP experts had analyzed the reports and sent them and their analysis findings to the foreign diplomatic missions and to the international organizations funding the Promo-LEX here namely the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Soros Foundation, the Council of Europe and the British Embassy in Chisinau.

"The Promo-LEX reports contain large amounts of unverified and unauthentic information, often torn out of concrete contexts. All this allows to call the reports as absolutely non-objective researches", wrote the Democrats.

In particular, they disagree with the sayings that many deputies of the Moldovan Parliament are, allegedly, bribed or intimidated [by the ruling party]. Also, the DP dislikes that the mixed election system is named in the Promo-LEX reports as a bad system that allegedly runs contrary to the recommendations given by the Venice Commission [VC] of the Council of Europe.

"But this is a subjective opinion, for most of VC requirements have been fixed in the Moldovan legislation. Promo-LEX is voicing doubt concerning the slow issuance of Integrity Certificates. But until the present moment, the National Integrity Organ has already issued over 700 such Certificates [to potential candidates for parliament] without problems", wrote the Democrats.

In their words, the Promo-LEX opinion that the nation-wide referendum should not be held on the same day with elections is a subjective opinion because the Moldovan legislation permits to hold such two voting events on one and the same day.

The Democrats perceive as 'laughable' the Promo-LEX statements that the Democratic Party is allegedly using administrative resources, with reference to the social support measures being made by the Moldovan Parliament and Government.

"The Association is thus challenging the activities of Moldovan state institutions that must work in citizens' interests. And this is not true that the Democratic Party uses foreign citizens in its electoral propaganda. Even if some foreign officials had wished success to the DP at the elections [Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groysman, ex-Premier of Romania Victor Ponta], this cannot indeed be used as an accusation against the Democratic Party", believe the Democrats. They also refuted the assertions by Promo-LEX that the DP allegedly does not indicate its real expenditures for the election campaign. They stressed that the Democratic Party was the first organization to have stated all its expenses, including even the ones on raising citizens' signatures in support of DP candidates in single-member constituencies.

"The Democratic Party is open to electoral process observation, but it should be organized professionally and fairly. We shall continue combating against the mendacious manipulative information being disseminated by Promo-LEX or other organizations in the course of the ongoing electoral process. We want such monitoring to be carried out impartially and objectively so that Moldova citizens and foreign partners be correctly informed about the preparation for the February 24 parliamentary elections", wrote the Democrats.

Pavel Postica, the Promo-LEX Program Director, replied in the social networks today that "impartiality, respect for the law, for international standards and human rights have always been the Association's guiding principles".

"We shall not respond to whatever attacks or intimidation attempts. The Promo-LEX team has undertaken serious commitments [to observe the electoral process] and will continue fulfilling the task of observing and informing", said Postica.