Iurie Ciocan, a member of the Central Election Commission (CEC), said he would grade the Commission a firm ‘8’ for the work done by this in the presidential elections. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, Iurie Ciocan said it is regrettable that not all those eligible could vote in elections, but their number cannot influence the outcome and no fraud was thus committed, IPN reports.
The CEC member said they could have probably done more within the information campaign as those who could not vote invoked that they weren’t informed about the possibility of registering beforehand. “I don’t think that what happened now will remain unnoticed as we never had such a large number of people who voted abroad. Over 138,000 Moldovans who voted outside the country is an absolute record for the Republic of Moldova,” stated Iurie Ciocan.
According to him, about 60,000 people voted abroad in the first round of the presidential elections. The first and second rounds of voting are held in the same conditions. Before the first round, the CEC adopted decisions concerning the electoral bureaus overseas and nobody challenged them. Moreover, the issue hasn’t been at least raised and no objections were formulated.
Iurie Ciocan noted that the elections must be free, fair, transparent and open, but must also be legal. “Today the legal conditions are as they are. The number of ballots for one electoral bureau is limited and this couldn’t have been otherwise,” he stated.
He also said that the CEC approved the report on the organization and holding of the elections. A number of things are to be analyzed and reviewed and the members of the Commission should formulate concrete proposals for improving the legal framework for the immediate periods.
