Due to spreading of the pandemic COVID-19 the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova declared state of emergency throughout the country for 17 March – 15 May 2020.
In order to diminish constrains posed by the coronavirus in Moldova, the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova (CEC) in cooperation with the Council of Europe representatives in Chisinau tries to put to most efficient use the electronical means of communication in order to get across the objectives from the Work plan for 2020.
To exemplify, representatives of the CEC, the Central Election Commission of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (ATU Gagauzia), local staff of the Council of Europe and local consultants teleconferenced on 26 March 2020 the state of pre-feasibility study mapping obstacles and legal, technical and economic conditions for the informational automation of the electoral processes in ATU Gagauzia. So far, electoral processes in the ATU Gagauzia are part of the State Automation Informational System “Elections” (SAIS “Elections”), run by the CEC as a unique electronic tool of managing all electoral processes, including collection, centralisation and electronic processing of electoral data during all electoral cycles throughout the country. The issue is that the SAIS “Elections” does not serve for elections and referenda organised by the Gagauz authorities only in ATU Gagauzia. As a result, the consultants presented the Road map of the study and further steps.
Another online meeting of staff members of the Council of Europe with representatives of the CEC and the Center for Continuous Electoral Training took place on 2 April. The aim was to discuss the state of the development of the Communication strategy in line with the CEC Strategic Plan for 2020-2023. It is worth mentioning, that the Strategic plan was developed with the expert assistance of the Council of Europe based on the CoE URSO (Useful, Relevant, Sustainable and Owned) toolkit for electoral cooperation and strategic planning prepared by the Division for Elections and Civil Society in cooperation with Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia, Italy.
The CoE Project “Improving electoral practice in the Republic of Moldova” adjusted its quarterly Work Plan so that the on-going activities are affected as less as possible. To this end, desk interviewers, tele-conferences, studies are being used with maximum efficiency.
