NAC launches information campaign " I Decide with Integrity – I Choose with Responsibility " to promote integrity in the electoral process

The National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC) has launched the national campaign "I Decide with Integrity – I Choose with Responsibility" - an initiative aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova. The objectives of the " I Decide with Integrity – I Choose with Responsibility" campaign are to raise citizens' awareness of the risks of electoral corruption, strengthen collaboration between state institutions, civil society and the media to prevent and combat electoral fraud, inform and train public agents on integrity in the decision-making and electoral process.

Thus, the first information session took place on Tuesday, in Bălți and brought together representatives of the Bălți City Hall and local government agencies. During the event, the officer of the Anti-corruption Education Directorate (DEA) of the NAC, Grigore Lupașcu, informed the public about the notion of electoral corruption, presenting recent statistics on combating electoral fraud, the typology of electoral crimes and the mechanisms for reporting corruption cases. The audience was also informed about the sanctions applied for illegal actions such as vote buying, illegal influence on voters and abuse of administrative resources for electoral purposes.

It should be noted that Article 47/1 was introduced by Law no. 230 of 31.07.2024 and entered into force on 15.08.2024, and the competence was assigned to the National Anti-corruption Centre. Thus, according to the Contravention Code, "passive electoral corruption" provides for fines from 25 thousand lei to 37.5 thousand lei per case, and to date, the NAC has applied fines of over 11 million lei in contravention files of passive electoral corruption.

The campaign will be implemented with the support of the State Chancellery at the central level, but also the territorial offices of the State Chancellery, the apparatus of district presidents, the mayors of localities in districts, district and local councils, educational institutions, local media institutions.