Moldova's parliamentary elections in September 2025 were competitive and offered voters a clear choice between political alternatives, but the process was undermined by foreign interference, illicit financing, cyber-attacks and widespread disinformation. The election administration handled preparations professionally and efficiently, and contestants campaigned freely throughout the country but in a highly polarised environment.
Decisions issued in the two days prior to the elections declaring two parties ineligible due to allegations of illegal funding limited their right to effective remedy. Voters' ability to make an informed choice on election day was hindered by widespread disinformation on social networks, partisan coverage in most media and limited investigative and analytical reporting. However, on election day itself, the process was well organized, calm and transparent.
These are some of the main conclusions from the final report published today by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The report provides 19 recommendations to align Moldova's election processes more closely with OSCE commitments and other international standards.
Key recommendations include:
- Comprehensively and inclusively reviewing the legal framework to address all outstanding ODIHR recommendations.
- Revising the legal framework to ensure that sanctions preventing a person from standing for election can be effectively challenged, and that candidate de-registrations are based on clear and solid evidence.
- Ensuring greater transparency and strengthening co-ordination among relevant state agencies and ministries in their efforts to counter disinformation and other forms of manipulative content, and strengthening cybersecurity strategies.
- Encouraging political parties and candidates to agree on a code of conduct before the next elections that establishes guidelines for online campaigning, and clarifies which campaign methods and network attributes are considered inauthentic.
- Further improving and enforcing rules to prevent misuse of public resources and public office, and regulating campaigning by third parties.
- Increasing co-ordination between state agencies responsible for combating vote-buying and illegal activities that influence voters' behaviour.
- Removing restrictions on the right to vote based on intellectual or psychosocial disability.
ODIHR's election observation mission in Moldova opened on 15 August 2025 and remained in the country until 8 October.
The ODIHR mission also assessed the country's efforts to implement previous recommendations. The observation mission to Moldova evaluated the follow-up to recommendations from the 2021 parliamentary elections, the 2023 local elections, and the 2024 presidential election and constitutional referendum and concluded that nine recommendations had been fully implemented, 12 mostly implemented and 21 partially addressed, while others are still outstanding. A full list can be found on p. 37 of today's report.
