Moldovan parliament speaker meets experts of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe

Chisinau, 18 September /MOLDPRES/ - Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu today had a meeting with the members of a special pre-electoral mission of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on a visit to Chisinau.   

The speaker said that the presence of PACE experts was important, in the context of the two ballots, due on 20 October – the presidential elections and the republican constitutional referendum for the accession to the European Union.   

„All of us want a correct, transparent campaign, during which the electoral contenders present their electoral programmes, but do not spread falsehoods. Therefore, it is important that we have more monitoring missions, in order to protect the citizens’ vote. During this campaign, after this was introduced in law, those who claim, accept or receive money, assets or services, in order to favour or disadvantage e certain electoral candidate, will be fined too. We should join efforts, in order to have free, fair elections and not allow crime rings from abroad to decide our future,’’ Igor Grosu said.      

The PACE’s pre-electoral mission has been is in Moldova starting from 16 September, in order to assess the pre-electoral campaign and the political climate from the country on the eve of the presidential polls and the constitutional referendum.

This week, the officials will have meetings with the Moldovan leadership and Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Cristina Gherasimov. The visit’s agenda also includes discussions with the head of the National Integrity Authority, Lilian Chisca, the head of the Audiovisual Council, Liliana Vitu, the members of the Central Electoral Commission.    

The delegation of the PACE pre-electoral mission has planned discussions with the main candidates for the office of Moldova’s president and the leaders of the political parties, with representatives of non-governmental organizations involved in the observation of the elections, as well as mass media representatives.   

The PACE delegation, led by Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir, includes Chris Said (Malta), Valentina Grippo (Italy), Laura Castel (Spain), as well as the co-rapporteurs for the fulfillment of the obligations and commitments by Moldova, Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland and Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica (Latvia).