The Election Code of the Republic of Moldova says all the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who turned 18, including on the election day, have the right to vote. The persons who were deprived of this right by definitive court decision cannot vote.
The Moldovan citizens take part in elections through universal, equal, direct, secret and freely expressed vote. No one can exert pressure on the voters to make them take part or not in elections and to persuade them how to vote. The elector votes in person. Voting instead of another person is banned. The citizens of the Republic of Moldova can elect and be elected regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, sex, opinion, political affiliation, assets or social origin.
The right to vote is exerted in the locality in which the voter has the domicile. If the voter has domicile and also residence, while the residence is valid this votes in the locality where he/she has the residence. The Moldovan citizens who have the domicile outside the country benefit from full electoral rights. The embassies and consular offices are obliged to establish polling places for the citizens from the diaspora to be able to vote. At these polling places, the voter fills out and submits an own responsibility statement concerning refraining from multiple voting.
At each election, each voter can cast only one vote. At the upcoming parliamentary elections, each voter will vote with two ballots – one for the national constituency and another one for the single-member constituency. The ballot is filled out by the voter only in the polling booth for secret voting. The voter who cannot independently complete the ballot can invite another person to the polling booth, except for members of the office of the polling place, representatives of electoral contenders and persons authorized to attend electoral operations.
The elector applies the stamp “Voted” inside the circle in one rectangular of the ballot, which means voting for the corresponding electoral competitor. The circles in the other rectangles should remain clean. It is banned taking the ballot out of the polling place. An elector can vote for only one electoral competitor. If the voter filled out the ballot incorrectly, this can ask the electoral office of the polling place to annul this ballot and to issue him/her immediately with a new ballot, only once. The voter puts the ballot with the stamp “Voted” in the ballot box.
If the voter cannot come to the polling place for health or other well-founded reasons, the electoral office of the polling place assigns, at the written request of the voter, at least two members of the office to travel to the voter’s place with a mobile box and with the necessary supplies. Applications in this regard can be submitted in the period of two weeks before the election day and until 6pm of the day prior to the election day. The requests on the election day can be filed by 3pm and a medical certificate should also be presented.
The persons held based on an arrest warrant until the court passes judgement, the persons sentenced to jail terms whose sentence is not definitive, those who are under arrest for a contravention and the persons sentenced to jail terms by definitive court judgment can vote and can ask for the mobile ballot box.
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The IPN division “Elections in plain words” is designed to explain notions, terms and practices related to the parliamentary elections based on the mixed electoral system and the consultative referendum that will take place on February 24, 2019.
