Financiarul

The Pro Democracy Association, APD, will monitor, Nov 22 – Dec 6, the spending of the political parties and of the independent candidates for out-door electoral publicity, said, on Monday, Oct 19, at a press conference, president of the association Cristian Parvulescu.

The candidates to be monitored are Traian Basescu, Mircea Geoana, Crin Antonescu, Sorin Oprescu, Corneliu Vadim Tudor and George Becali.
APD will also monitor the busiest boulevards and streets in 14 cities of Romania and in the six districts of Bucharest and will evaluate the costs for each candidate on the basis of the prices of the suppliers of printing services.

Monitored will also be the observance of art 29 (2) para a.b. of Law 334/2006, with the subsequent modifications, regarding the obligation of writing in the propaganda materials the company that printed them and the party or alliance that edited them.”

On another line of thought, APD will also monitor the presidential election of Nov 22 and Dec 6 and the referendum, if it takes place, Parvulescu announced.
APD will recruit one thousand observers from 25 counties and Bucharest for the monitoring of the presidential election of Nov 22 and Dec 6. Each APD observer will benefit from training for the activity he or she will carry out, from a textbook of the observer and continual assistance from the APD coordinators on the day of the voting.

Cristian Parvulescu singled out that in the past ten years, the number of the polling stations increased in Romania, reaching 23,000 this year, although the turnout is in “free fall”.

For its part, Active Watch – the Agency for the Monitoring of the Press, AMP, will carry out a monitoring focusing only on the audiovisual, which will monitor the visibility, the themes proposed during the main information broadcasts and electoral debates at national level, with the visibility of the candidates to the position of president, as well as of all the members of the government and the politicians, the way in which the messages of the candidates to the presidency are conveyed.
AMP will try to inform, in real time, about any mistake in the electoral campaign in the audiovisual.

AMP president Mircea Toma believes that an additional reason for worry is generated by the effect generated by the audiovisual. One more worry is, in his opinion, the effect produced by the crisis.

According to the president of AMP, the crisis rendered vulnerable the economy of the media institutions, which is readier to “vicious understandings.” Cristian Parvulescu and Mircea Toma made these statements on the occasion of the launch of the Programme regarding the electoral campaign for the presidential election of the Alliance for Fair Elections, composed from APD, AMP, and Cartel Alfa unions.