The Central Election Commission (CEC) has launched an online application for the preregistration of the Moldovan citizens eligible to vote, who will be abroad on the presidential election day and the national constitutional referendum of October 20, 2024. In order to register, the Moldovan voters need to visit the website www.inregistrare.cec.md. The application also contains the option to register for postal voting in the countries where this alternative voting method will be implemented, namely the U.S., Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, IPN reports.

Pre-registration is a procedure by which the citizens of the Republic of Moldova entitled to vote, who will be abroad on election day, register in advance and voluntarily, through the official website administered by the Central Election Commission or by written request, individually or in groups. As far as postal voting is concerned, preregistration is mandatory and is an important element to establish who are those who want to vote by mail and to verify their identity, the CEC noted.

The purpose of preregistration is to estimate the number of voters who express their intention to vote abroad on election day in order to organize polling stations abroad, this being one of the three criteria set down by the electoral law, together with information about the voter turnout in the last three national elections and the data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the number and place of residence of citizens of the Republic Moldova abroad.

CEC head Angelica Caraman said that the electoral authority aimed to solve the problems faced by our compatriots in other elections in the voting process abroad, such as the insufficient number of ballot papers, waiting for hours, huge distances they had to travel every time. “Together with other state authorities, we have undertaken to identify solutions, to optimize both the number of polling stations and their location closer to voters. These solutions are related to the application of information technologies, digitization of the registration process at polling stations, but also to the implementation of new voting methods,” said the official.

Voters can preregister no later than 45 days before election day, with the deadline being September 6, 2024.