Legal liability

(1) Natural and legal persons, initiative groups, electoral competitors and participants in the referendum, as well as other subjects involved in the electoral process which fail to comply with the provisions of normative acts in electoral matters, hinder free exercise of citizens’ electoral rights, hinder the electoral bodies activity, shall be liable under the legislation in force.

(2) For violations of electoral normative acts, the Central Electoral Commission or, where appropriate, the District Electoral Council, ex officio or at the request of another competent authority or at the request of complainant, may apply or request the application of the following main or complementary sanctions:

a) warning;
b) depriving of free and/or paid air time, for a period between 24 and 48 hours, which shall be applied only after the warning sanctions has been applied;
c) depriving from the State budget allocations;
d) contravention sanction, in accordance with the Contravention Code, which falls under the competence of the Central Electoral Commission;
e) cancel the registration, accreditation or confirmation of electoral subjects;
f) request the ex officio removal of political parties under the Law No 294/2007 on political parties.

(3) The warning sanction may be applied by the decision of the Central Electoral Commission for breach of legislative acts in electoral matters, other than those laid down in paragraph (5) – for all types of elections, as well as by the decision of the District Electoral Council – in local elections and local referendums.

(4) The Central Electoral Commission shall apply to political parties registered as electoral competitors the complementary penalty of depriving them of State budget allocations, for a period between 2 months and one year, only if the warning sanction is repeatedly applied during an electoral period for offences on the financing of the initiative groups and/or the electoral campaign.

(5) The cancelation of the registration shall be applied by the decision of electoral body that registered the electoral subject if it finds:

a) the use of undeclared financial and material funds exceeding 1 % of the maximum ceiling of funds that may be transferred in the account marked “Electoral Fund” or the account “Intended for the initiative group”;
b) exceeding the ceiling of the account “Electoral Fund” or of the account “Intended for the initiative group”;
c) the use of foreign funds, except for donations from citizens of the Republic of Moldova with income obtained outside the country;
d) failure to suspend from his/her duties of the candidate that has such obligation. In such a case, the registration of an electoral competitor, an independent candidate shall be cancelled or the respective candidate shall be withdrawn from the list of an electoral competitor.

(6) In case of infringement of the provisions of this Code and of other normative acts in electoral matters by electoral officials, the Central Electoral Commission or, where appropriate, the District Electoral Council shall apply, under the decision, the following sanctions:

a) a warning;
b) removal from the composition of the electoral bodies and their offices;
c) exclusion from the register of electoral officials;
d) deprivation of the right to carry out any activity within the electoral bodies for a period of 1 to 4 years.

(7) For infringement of normative acts concerning the elections coverage by media service providers, the Audiovisual Council shall apply the sanctions laid down in the Audiovisual Media Services Code.

(8) In the case of the observer's infringement of the electoral regulatory framework, the electoral body that accredited the observer has the right to apply, by adopting a decision to this effect, taking into account the seriousness of the infringement, one of the following sanctions: warning or cancellation of accreditation. For the purposes of this article, any act of electoral campaigning for or against a political party or electoral competitor, an initiative group, participant in the referendum, the options on the questions that the voters must decide on in the referendum, or the attempt to influence the voter's choice, as well as non-compliance with the observer's obligations.

(9) The Central Electoral Commission may ask the Public Service Agency for ex officio removal of the political parties under the Law No 294/2007 on political parties.