Home > 2.9 Electoral offences and sanctions > MOLDOVA- Joint Opinion on the Electoral Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 42
 

The observation of the 2007 local elections by the OSCE/ODIHR EOM revealed a need to further clarify the legal grounds for deregistration of candidates. Under Article 126(1) of the Electoral Code, a party taking part in local elections is obliged to submit a certain minimum number of candidates on a party list which corresponds to 1/2 of the number of mandates in a given district council. Similar provision exists for parliamentary elections, as stated in Article 79. During the 2007 local elections, the above requirement was used by some election commissions as grounds for annulment of entire candidate lists following withdrawal of some candidates, when the number of remaining candidates fell below the required number.[14] The Law should clarify that the withdrawal or exclusion of some candidates from a list of a party, that was already registered and thus has fulfilled all legal registration requirements, should not result in automatic deregistration of the entire list – a measure that should be generally regarded as a last resort in a democratic society. [15]