A number of amendments were suggested to the law to amend and supplement the Election Code for organizing the presidential elections. MPs and representatives of civil society debated publicly the legislative initiative after this was enforced by the Venice Commission, IPN reports.

Democratic MP Sergiu Sarbu, who is one of the authors of the changes, said that most of the norms of the Election Code remained the same as in 2000. Only some of them were adjusted to the national legislation. “We intentionally referred only to the presidential elections and didn’t intervene where the legislation regulates other elections. The Venice Commission said the legislation should not be changed before the elections, but took into account the fact that the presidential elections were set for October 30 and accepted the amendments,” he stated.

According to the MP, the amendments to the Election Code should be adopted in the final reading by the end of the next week so that the rules of the game are known. “We hope that tomorrow (June 17, e.n.), the new composition of the Central Election Commission will be accepted,” said Sergiu Sarbu.

Among the proposals formulated by the MPs is the opening of polling places abroad based on the information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, depending on the number of Moldovans in a particular country. It was suggested annulling the establishment of polling places based on preliminary registration and that the candidate should gather at least 15,000 signatures in their support, but not more than 20,000.

Pavel Postica, programs director at the Association “Promo-LEX”, said they earlier proposed excluding the Government from the process of opening polling places abroad so that the related decisions are taken only by the Central Election Commission, after consulting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also suggested immediately implementing electronic voting as this will exclude all the related problems.

The Commission’s chairman Iurie Ciocan said the Government assumes particular responsibilities, such as the establishment of locations, ensuring of security in the voting process and communication with the foreign states.

The draft law to amend and supplement the Election Code for organizing the presidential elections was passed in the first reading. The presidential elections were scheduled for October 30 this year.