​CEC CHAIR CALLS DIASPORA TO USE PRELIMINARY REGISTRATION BEFORE 2019 ELECTIONS

Moldovan Central Election Commission Chairperson Alina Rusu has called the Moldovan diaspora in foreign countries to use the mechanism of voter registration in advance before the parliamentary elections scheduled for February 24, 2019.

Speaking today at the 8th Diaspora Congress in Chisinau, Rusu said that such preliminary registration of voters will enable the CEC to establish precisely where concretely Moldova citizens reside in each given foreign country and where it would be advisable to open polling stations to thus achieve a higher voter turnout.

The CEC Chairperson said that Moldova will organize three electoral constituencies abroad – eastern (CIS countries, China, Japan), western (European Union area) and American (United States, Canada).

“Decision on the number of polling stations to be opened abroad is taken by the Moldovan Government 35 days before the election date. Until that time, we will collect all necessary information about the number of voters who have got registered beforehand and about those who took part in the previous nation-wide election”, said Alina Rusu.

The CEC Chairperson explained that diaspora voters have the possibility to get registered by means of online platform “inregistrare.cec.md” or by sending an application to the Moldova Embassy or Consular Office in a given country.

“Unfortunately, last two weeks the possibility of preliminary registration was used merely by 42 citizens. And upon the whole, only 2.1 thousand citizens have got registered”, said the CEC Chairperson.

Infotag's dossier: During the second round of the 2016 Moldovan presidential election, polling stations in Moscow, London, Paris and Bucharest ran out of their ballot-paper stocks long before the end of voting, so thousands of Moldovans were devoid of the possibility to vote. Only 2370 citizens got registered in advance then. All in all, the Government then opened 100 polling stations in foreign countries, which were visited by about 140 thousand voters. And approximately the same number of ballot-paper remained unused.