Approximately 830,000 citizens are expected to cast their ballots in the November 19 runoff vote. Deputy head of the Central Election Commission Pavel Postica said that the ballots with the names of candidates are much shorter now and the voting process and vote count and tabulation will be therefore easier. In eight Moldovan localities, the local elections will be rerun for the citizens to choose their mayors and councilors as the first round of voting was invalidated due to the low turnout of voters, IPN reports.

Under the law, the runoffs are held in the localities in which none of the candidates in the first round of voting polled more than half of the valid votes cast. Runoffs will be held in 273 localities.

“Nearly 830,000 people are expected to vote in the runoffs. We hope the financial resources allocated initially will be enough to cover the costs of the runoff vote as for the first time in the Republic of Moldova, the runoffs will be held in fewer localities than in the previous elections. Usually, the runoff vote is held in 40% of the localities, but now the figure stands at about 30%. So, the citizens decided faster and we managed to save money. We hope the funds will be enough for the runoffs too. The ballot is now much shorter and the vote count and the analysis process for citizens will be easier. In the first round of voting, the ballots were long and the people got by even three-four ballots,” Pavel Postica stated in the program “Public Space” on Radio Moldova station.

By two candidates who polled most of the votes in the first round of voting will be written on the ballot. Only one candidate will be yet written on the ballots for Cotova village of Drochia district and Todirești village of Ungheni district. The mayoral and council elections in eight Moldovan localities will be rerun on November 19 as the turnout there in the first round was under 25%.

“In these localities, approximately 10,800 electors are expected to vote this Sunday,” explained Pavel Postica.

Nicolae Panfil, the head of the election observation mission of Prom-Lex, said the campaign prior to the runoffs is calmer than that prior to the first round of voting.

“This is due to the fact that we have fewer candidates. That’s why the interest is reduced. Some of the parties continue staging campaign activities, but these are lower in number than in the first round of voting,” stated Nicolae Panfil.

In accordance with the electoral legislation, the runoff vote is validated in each electoral constituency if at least 20% of the voting-eligible population there cast their ballots.