The Venice Commission has issued a “positive opinion” on the Law introducing partial postal voting, declared MP Veronica Roșca, chair of the Legal Committee.
The initiative is welcomed “since the number of Moldovan citizens with the right to vote abroad is high compared to other states, and the practice used for voting in the past created difficulties”, noted Roșca. The Commission also observed that “the limited territorial coverage of the pilot vote is acceptable because it applies to a single election”, namely the one on October 20.
At the same time, the Venice Commission recommends that, “if the pilot vote is successful, postal voting could take on a permanent character, thus ensuring its stability and legal certainty, and to apply it to all countries where postal voting is safe and reliable, based on the decisions of the Central Electoral Commission”.
The opinion also emphasizes that, although the amendments were adopted less than 5 months before the election, they do not violate the principle of the stability of the electoral law, as they have a limited territorial applicability (the United States of America, Canada, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden , the Republic of Finland and the Republic of Iceland).
“I want to mention that postal voting is an electoral instrument that is long awaited by the Moldovan diaspora and it aims to provide another voting option for our citizens abroad in 6 countries where this system is already successfully used”, said Veronica Roșca.
Opposition MPs have contested the constitutionality of the law, but the Constitutional Court is yet to pronounce on the matter.
