Project Summary:

The first phase of the “Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections” (EDMITE) had the overall goal to achieve an enhanced transparency and inclusiveness of the electoral process in Moldova through a modernized IT system, improved legislation and intensified public participation, addressing the root causes of the current challenges hampering the further development of the democracy and the advancement of the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova.

The long-standing partnership between the CEC and UNDP resulted in the establishment of a strong professional institution, able to provide transparent and inclusive democratic elections.

With UNDP support, the CEC managed to enhance the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova through the development of the modern and innovative State Automated Information System “Elections” (SAISE), as well as a meaningful collaboration with the Public Services Agency and the e-Government Agency.

A distinct thematic focus of the Project phase was to enhance the awareness on political participation and electoral processes via a series of multi-layered interventions. The Project supported the CEC and CCET in designing and implementing large-scale civic education and voter information programs, offered communication expertise and facilitated outreach activities as to generate a positive change and deliver tailored information to a wide spectrum of target groups (including women, youth and first-time voters, ethnic and linguistic minorities, diaspora, people with disabilities, etc.).

Objectives:

• Achieve a more accurate State Register of Voters, improve the quality and accessibility of electoral data and facilitate the interoperability between central public institutions;
• Enhance the inclusiveness of the electoral process by increasing the functional and technical capacities of the State Automated Information System “Elections” (SAISE);
• Support the advancement of the legal reform in elections, particularly to the implementation of the political party finance legislation;
• Enhance the political participation of citizens by setting up and implementing the voters’ information and civic education programmes.

Expected results:

• Credibility of the State Register of Voters enhanced;
• State Automated Information System “Elections” enhanced;
• Political Party Finance Framework further advanced;
• Civic Education and Voter Information systems strengthened with a particular focus on women and youth.

Accomplishments:

• Civil Status Acts IT Subsystem – developed;
• Address Register Information System – developed;
• Address System Guide – elaborated and 44 regional Cadastre officials capacitated;
• Boundaries for 83 localities – established;
• IT staff from 17 Central Public institutions – capacitated in WSO2 architecture;
• Draft Law on data classification – elaborated;
• Strategic Development Plan of EGA for 2020-2024 – completed;
• GAP analysis of the digital infrastructure of the e-Governance framework – completed;
• CEC official webpage (cec.md) and the civic education platform (voteaza.md) – updated;
• SAISE modules and infrastructure – modernized and adjusted for the mixed electoral system, load and stress tested, and fully functional during elections;
• Modernization of the SAISE hardware and software infrastructure – completed;
• State Register of Voters – adjusted for the 2019 General Local Elections;
• Interface for real-time visualization of voting results – crowdsourced, designed, and functional, being viewed by 1,700,000 people;
• Application for out-of-country voters (diaspora.voteaza.md) –created and used by 47,391 people during elections;
• SAISE modules “Electoral Candidates”, “Documentation” and “Register of Electoral Officials” – developed;
• Usage of ID card barcode scanners – successfully piloted in 70 polling stations during the 2019 General Local Elections;
• Transposal of the “Check your name in the State Register of Voters” application on self-service payment terminals across the country – carried out;
• “Financial Control” module of SAISE – developed with a public interface elaborated through crowdsourcing;
• Historical political parties’ financial reports – digitized;
• Multi-layered and inclusive civic education and voter information campaign – implemented at the national level throughout 2017 – 2020, with over 1,130 activities reaching over 354,000 and 1,800,000 indirect beneficiaries;
• Elections of the student councils – organized in 76 schools;
• Innovative ideas in the electoral field - crowdsourced via a series of thematic events (InnoVoter Creativity Lab, Filmmakers Camp and VotART Creativity Workshop);
• Accessibility of 612 polling stations – assessed and documented.