Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Oleg Țulea asked the ambassadors working abroad to formulate recommendations for removing the shortcomings witnessed in the voting process abroad on November 1. After the relevant information is collected, the Central Election Commission will be informed about the identified shortcomings so that it takes measures to improve the voting conditions at out-of-country polling stations with a higher flow of voters, IPN reports.
Among the issues that are to be addressed are the crowdedness, defective management of the long lines, interaction with the local authorities and bodies that supervise public order on the election day, improvement of the voting process by supplementing the personnel, equipment and electoral supplies, impact of harsher restrictions and measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other aspects that can affect the functionality of the polls.
In a videoconference with Moldova’s ambassadors centering on the voting process abroad, Oleg Țulea said the Ministry systematically informed the CEC and public opinion about voting outside the country, including on the election day, about the crowding of electors around polling stations. During the last few days, the embassies and consular offices determined the additional measures that can be taken in accordance with the legal provisions so as to better and safely organize voting abroad, presenting the good practices at polling stations established in Ireland.
The local public order authorities of the host countries filed multiple complaints about crowdedness of people around polls, which shows that the epidemiological measures weren’t respected. Therefore, the Ministry reiterates the call to the members of the diaspora to strictly obey the sanitary norms imposed by the authorities of the countries that allowed the Moldovans to exercise their right to vote despite the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the 139 polling stations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration provided a team of 112 employees of the diplomatic service, personnel of embassies and consular offices of Moldova and the central staff of the Ministry as presidents of the electoral commissions of polling stations, in addition to the 27 presidents assigned from among the diaspora based on the CEC register.
