A woman from Soroca, sentenced to one year in prison for voter corruption
The Soroca Court sentenced a 60-year-old woman to a one-year suspended prison sentence for corrupting voters in the 2024 presidential elections and constitutional referendum. According to the Prosecutor's Office, she acted in favor of the electoral bloc "Victoria – Победа", launched at the initiative of Ilan Șor, and tried to influence voters through financial promises.
The investigation established that the woman identified several people, collected their personal data and installed the PSB (Promsvyazbank) application on their devices, through which they were to receive money to vote according to the instructions. For this purpose, 2,500 Russian rubles were transferred to the account of an intermediary, but the plan was not carried out, as the beneficiaries gave up after they were informed of the legal consequences of their actions.
The sentence pronounced on March 10, 2025, provides for the suspension of the execution of the sentence for a probationary period of two years. In court, the defendant pleaded guilty.
We remind you that the sanctions for electoral corruption, introduced into the Code of Minor Offenses in mid-August 2024, were applied for the first time to the presidential elections and the republican referendum on accession to the European Union. According to the authorities, the legislative amendments aimed to combat attempts to corrupt voters, including those attributed to the Kremlin-backed “organized group Shor,” which allegedly orchestrated a large-scale campaign to illegally influence the results of the elections last fall. Over 130,000 people are suspected of having sold their votes or participated in corrupting voters.
Currently, the law provides for fines between 25,000 and 37,500 lei for people who accepted or requested goods, services, or undue advantages to influence electoral rights in the elections.
In December 2024, PAS deputies voted, in first reading, new amendments to the law. If the bill passes, individuals who are involved in electoral corruption, acting in the interest of an organized criminal group or a criminal organization, will face fines ranging from 67,500 thousand lei to 92,500 thousand lei or imprisonment from four to seven years. In the case of legal entities, the fine will reach up to 550 thousand lei, with the deprivation of the right to exercise a certain activity for a term of up to five years or with the liquidation of the legal entity.
To date, the CNA has imposed fines in the amount of over 10 million lei for cases of passive electoral corruption.
Also, dozens of complaints were registered with the Constitutional Court aimed at verifying the constitutionality of the legal provisions applied to sanction voters accused of selling their votes in the 2024 elections. In January, the High Court rejected 94 complaints regarding the sanctioning of electoral corruption.
