The Patriotic Electoral Bloc (PEB) accuses the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of “restricting international observation of the elections out of fear that numerous irregularities will be uncovered and that the country’s democratic standards will be subject to critical evaluation,” TRIBUNA reports.

According to the Bloc, the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova has denied accreditation to more than 30 international organizations and 120 foreign observers from around the world (with the exception of Australia), including rejecting the request from Russian observers representing ODIHR/OSCE.

“Numerous reputable international organizations and experts have reported that their requests were rejected based on clear normative contradictions or simply ignored. In many cases, repeated requests received no response at all.”

Moreover, the CEC refused accreditation even to European organizations from countries with large Moldovan communities — including Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. Representatives of these countries raised a legitimate question: why are they not allowed to monitor elections in the Republic of Moldova, a country aspiring to join the EU? How can Moldova prohibit observation of an electoral process that will take place on the territory of their own states?

Such practices call into question the electoral credibility of the Republic of Moldova. According to the Bloc, President Sandu and the CEC are damaging the country’s image as an open and democratic state on the international stage. “It is a blatant contradiction: you cannot claim to pursue European integration while simultaneously denying European organizations access to monitor elections. Genuine democracy is built on transparency — including through independent observation of electoral processes,” the PEB stated.