The number of people eligible to vote in the October 20 elections is by almost 15,000 higher compared to the presidential elections four years ago. Considering the low birth rates and increasing emigration, this is worrying, as it raises concerns about the quality of electoral rolls and data contained in the State Register of Voters, said experts of the Promo-LEX NGO in the first election observation report.

Nicolae Panfil, program director at Promo-LEX, told a press conference on Tuesday that 3,300,600 voters were included in the State Register of Voters as of August 1, a number that is practically identical to that registered in last year’s local elections. However, when compared to the 2020 presidential elections, there is an increase of almost 15,000 voters.

“In our opinion, it cannot be exclusively about the Central Electoral Commission when we talk about the quality of these data, but rather about the way in which the records of the data are kept in the State Population Register”, said Nicolae Panfil.

According to Nicolae Panfil, from one election to another, there is also a growing disparity in the number of voters who do not have a domicile or residence visa. The hypothesis is that these are mostly voters who leave abroad. For the legislative elections, this is not necessarily a problem, because all voters abroad vote on additional lists, which means they will be able to access the polling stations.

“However, when it comes to the referendum, we admit that this is an extremely important issue, because there is a participation quorum of 33% in the referendum that must be met to validate its outcome. So, we will see whether this will be a problem or not in the upcoming elections. However, in order to avoid speculation on this subject, we urge the authorities, both CEC and ASP, to explain what the causes actually are”, said Panfil.