The figure of 125 polling places that will be established outside Moldova, which is by 25 polling places more than in the presidential elections of 2016, is manipulative. The Government will not open polling places where it is very necessary, where tens of thousands of people at the previous elections were unable to vote. It will establish polling places in states and cities where there are few Moldovan. This is how he electoral bloc ACUM commented on the Government’s decision to open 125 polling places abroad for the February 24, 2019 parliamentary elections, IPN reports.
In a press release, the bloc ACUM said polling places should have been opened in the Italian cities Parma, Padova, Verona, Mestre, Bologna, Brescia, Modena, Treviso, Milan and Rome, where there are a lot of Moldovans. In Ireland, according to the results of the 2016 parliamentary elections, a polling place should have been established near Dublin, but it was decided to open this in Tralee. In the U.S., over 2,500 voters in 2016 cast their ballots in Chicago, but this year a polling place will not be established there. Instead, polling places will be opened in another five places where a particular candidate, who is formally independent, but in reality represents the Democratic Party, runs and where employees of the Public Services Agency issue passports in a large number.
According to ACUM, four new polling places should have been opened in France – two in Paris and by one in Villeneuve-Saints-Georges and in Montreuil. The authorities decided yet to open one polling place, in Marseille, where the number of Moldovans is low. Two new polling places were needed in the UK, in London, but these will be established in Manchester and Northampton. In Romania, there were needed three new polling places – two in Bucharest and one in Iasi, by only one polling place will be opened in Sibiu.
The electoral bloc ACUM said we are witnessing a new illegally and also a new mockery at the Moldovans who live abroad.
The Government decided that 125 polling places will be established abroad for the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019. The largest number of polling places will be opened in Italy (29), Romania and the U.S (by 12), the Russian Federation (11), France (seven), Portugal and Spain (by five). Four polling places will be established in the UK, by three in Ukraine, Canada and Turkey and by two in Israel, Belgium, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ireland, and Germany. By one polling place will be set up in Greece, China, Azerbaijan, Poland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Qatar, Japan, Croatia, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, and Norway.