To be able to vote in the elections to the European Parliament, the Romanian citizens should possess valid Romanian identification papers and should therefore check their validity period beforehand and take steps to renew or replace them. On the election day of May 26, the Consular Section of the Embassy of Romania in Chisinau and the Romanian consulates in Balti and Cahul will not issue identification papers, Romania’s Ambassador to Moldova Daniel Ioniță was quoted by IPN as saying in a news conference on May 10.

Daniel Ioniță stated that a record number of 441 polling stations will be established abroad for this year’s elections, as opposed to 190 stations at the previous European Parliament elections. The addresses of the polling stations outside Romania can be seen on an interactive map. Of the total number of stations, 36 will be available in Moldova. Voting starts at 7am, local time, and ends at 9pm, local time.

The ambassador noted the Romanian citizens who are written on the voter rolls of the other EU member states at the upcoming elections can vote for Romanian candidates for MEP only after they present an own responsibility statement showing they hadn’t voted for candidates from the EU member state on whose registers of voters they were put.

The electors abroad can vote with the diplomatic passport, electronic diplomatic passport, service passport, electronic service passport, ordinary passport or electronic ordinary passport, ordinary temporary passport, identity card, temporary identity card or electronic identity card.

The elections are open to Romanian citizens who have the domicile or residence abroad, who turned 18 before or on the election day, who are abroad on the election day regardless of the reason for the stay on a foreign territory and to citizens with the right to vote from other EU member states who asked to be put on special lists for voting for Romanian candidates for MEP.

Romania’s representatives in the European Parliament are elected by universal, equal, direct, secret and freely expressed vote. Currently, Romania is represented by 32 MEPs. The Members of the European Parliament serve a five-year term.

During May 23-26, 2019, the citizens of the EU member states will elect the new European Parliament by direct vote. The elections to choose MEPs from Romania will be held on May 26. This is the fourth round of EP elections held in Romania since its accession to the EU. The previous elections took place in November 2007, June 2009 and May 2014.