A number of 234 polling stations will be established in 37 countries for the presidential election and the national constitutional referendum of October 20. A decision in this regard was approved by the Central Election Commission on Saturday, IPN reports.

CEC member Tatiana Barburoș said that the number of polling stations abroad was agreed taking into account the number of preregistrations abroad, the information presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the number and place of stay of Moldovans abroad, collected on the basis of consular records, and also the official information held or periodically published by the competent authorities of the host countries on the number and place of stay of citizens of the Republic of Moldova.

After analyzing the data, the CEC sent the list of polling stations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for approval and the Ministry formulated a series of recommendations, taking into account the security aspects in a number of countries. For example, only two polling stations are to be opened in Israel. With regard to the polling stations proposed for Ukraine, the diplomatic mission in Kyiv stressed that the security situation in Ukraine continues to be aggravated by the Russian Federation’s attacks on infrastructure facilities, including civilian ones, and, if polling stations are established inside the diplomatic and consular missions in Kyiv and Odessa, the fact that they do not have the capacity to shelter voters in the event of an air alarm should be taken into account.

“With reference to the polling stations that are proposed to be organized in the Russian Federation, the diplomatic mission of Moldova informed that the security situation in this country during 2024 has worsened significantly. Thus, as Russia has now military operations on its territory, it is not safe organizing polling stations for the 2024 election without putting the bodily integrity of voters at risk,” said Tatiana Barburoș. According to her, the diplomatic missions can be an exception. Thus, it was proposed to set up five polling stations in Russia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to identify the premises where the polling stations will be established, in accordance with the stipulated technical conditions.