Parliament adopted amendments and supplements to the Election Code concerning the organization of presidential elections in the first reading. 55 MPs of those attended the June 23 sitting voted in favor of the changes, IPN reports.
The new provisions say those who will run in the presidential elections will have to gather 15,000 signatures in their support. The minimum voter turnout was reduced to 1/3. The date of the presidential elections will be set within 30 days of the expiration of the term in office of the incumbent President.
The Socialist MPs accepted the necessity of amending the electoral legislation, but didn’t vote on the bill for the reason that the authors didn’t include the amendment concerning the working out of a clear mechanism for establishing polling places abroad. They proposed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should ask for information about the Moldovans settled abroad from foreign authorities so that the number of polling places abroad was set depending on these figures.
The Election Code had to be amended after the Constitutional Court restored the people’s right to elect the Head of State themselves. The presidential elections will take place on October 30, 2016.
