The Art of Electoral Corruption: Inside the Ruling Party’s Strategy

Christian Russu

Five months before the elections, PAS resorted to straightforward electoral bribery by allocating funds for one-time payments, increasing pensions, subsidizing electricity tariffs, and similar measures. Meanwhile, not only the methods and technologies from the Plahotniuc era are being shamelessly copied, but even the pretexts for bribing the population

“Parliament approved the ruling party’s initiative to grant all pensioners 600 lei for Easter.” At first glance, a reader might reasonably assume the headline refers to yesterday’s announcement made at a special press conference by the Speaker of Parliament, PAS leader Igor Grosu, and Minister of Social Protection Alexei Buzu. Only later might they notice that the amount seems oddly small. The explanation is simple – the news item above is from 2017, when Vlad Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party spent 360 million lei on payments to pensioners. Two years later, Plahotniuc himself announced plans to once again give 600 lei to elderly people and people with disabilities before Easter, to increase cold-season subsidies for vulnerable groups to 700 lei, to raise one-time childbirth allowances to 10,000 lei, and to introduce monthly payments of 200 lei for every child until adulthood, among other measures. Back then, and in the years that followed, all these initiatives by the Democrats were fiercely criticized by the current top figures of the ruling party. Yet today, those very same leaders are blatantly stealing and adopting the trademark ‘recipes’ of their former chief political adversaries, putting on a show of unprecedented ‘generosity and care’ for the public. That electoral bribery was in full swing became clear with the announcement of the so-called ‘Plus Budget’ funded by a €1.9 billion financial aid package from the European Union. It’s worth noting that only €385 million of this amount will come in the form of grants, while the rest consists of loans that will be added to the €2.5 billion already borrowed from international financial institutions. Into this ‘Plus Budget’, with its blatant electoral motives, the government even retroactively included an EU grant initially intended to address the energy crisis in the first two months of the year. In other words, there will be funds to continue the populist policy of supporting the population up until the elections. The EU gave its approval, choosing not to impose conditions on how the funds should be used. As the saying goes, all’s fair in war. So far, the ruling party’s ‘charity’ consists of the following. Ahead of Easter, 470 million lei were allocated for one-time payments to citizens with children under the age of five, a measure expected to cover around 230,000 families. This initiative was actively promoted not only by Grosu and Buzu, but also by other PAS MPs who began explaining the details. Naturally, the ruling party also remembered pensioners – though, for now, only those with more than 40 years of work experience: their pensions will be raised to 3,300 lei per month. This initiative was also approved by the government yesterday at the proposal of Alexei Buzu. At the same time, the government adopted a resolution to provide compensation to household electricity consumers. The first 110 kWh will be subsidized by the government. The relevant minister was quick to announce that the measure would remain in effect until the end of the year, although in reality, it only lasts until September, just in time for the parliamentary elections. The aim is to ensure that voters don’t receive bills without the subsidy before the 28th and suddenly ‘see the light’, while PAS can, without blushing, boast about its generosity right before the vote. Regarding the Easter payments from PAS, it’s worth noting that all party officials have started emphasizing the technical details: that all recipients have already been determined, there’s no need to apply anywhere, and the money will automatically be credited to accounts and bank cards (of the designated banks). Allegedly, the authorities have taken everything into account, including for our citizens abroad, assuring there’s nothing to worry about. For the uninformed, it may be unclear, but in our country, for most people living on the edge of survival, issues related to payments are always a sensitive topic. They won’t just sit back and wait for the money to arrive. I’m sure many of those on the list of ‘lucky ones’ will rush to check and double-check everything, fearing they might overlook what’s rightfully theirs. Then, everyone will share tips on how to receive the money faster and more efficiently. With this involvement in the process, the authors of the initiative or outside political strategists aim to ensure PAS’s presence in every household at least until early summer. Against this backdrop, the ruling regime’s significant tightening of liability for political and electoral corruption appears rather symbolic. It includes a series of amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. In the language of realpolitik, this is essentially a demonstration to opponents of PAS’s monopoly on such acts of corruption, which is precisely what they are aiming for. This is largely the reason behind the opposition’s criticism of the authorities. At the same time, they are facing a disadvantageous position: accusing PAS officials is one thing, but calling for the cancellation of already announced measures would be politically unwise, as voters wouldn’t understand. And, of course, the opposition lacks the administrative resources to implement its own wide-reaching programs of ‘targeted assistance’. The only possible exception is the team of Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban, but even there, the funding levels and scale of outreach is incommensurate with what the current regime has at its disposal. All in all, the opposition will have to endure PAS’s blatant displays of corruption until the elections, with little ability to counter them. One can only hope that such banal and cynical tactics won’t help the ‘yellow’ party – just as they ultimately failed to help Plahotniuc in the past.