The registration of candidates for the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 starts on December 26 and applications for registration will be accepted by January 24, 2019. The documents in the period can be submitted from Monday through Friday, between 9am and 4p, except for January 1 and 7, 2019, IPN reports.

Rodica Sîrbu, head of the Central Election Commission’s Communication, Public Relations and the Media Division, has told IPN that the CEC accepts documents for registering candidates in the national constituency. The application in written form should be accompanied by a series of documents, including the biographical data of the candidate, the integrity certificate, the person’s statement concerning their consent to run in the parliamentary elections, including an own responsibility statement about the absence of legal or court bans on running, and the property and interest statement for two years prior to the election year.

For being registered as contenders in single-member constituencies, the persons should go to the electoral council of the district where they intend to run, also from Monday through Friday, between 9am and 4p, except for January 1 and 7, 2019. The persons will file an application to be issued with subscription lists. To be registered by the district electoral council, the candidate for the single-member constituency must present the subscription lists with at least 500 and at most 1,000 signatures of supporters with the right to vote from the single-member constituency where they intend to run. A woman candidate can be registered if this presents at least 250 and at most 500 signatures of supporters with the right to vote from the constituency where they intend to run. The required documents are submitted to the council together with the signatures.

Rodica Sîrbu noted the electoral body registers or refuses to register the candidates within seven days of the receipt of the documents. Even so, the election campaign for all the contenders registered by the CEC and the district electoral council starts 30 days before the election day, which is on January 25, 2019.

Also on December 26, the CEC will begin to register the participants in the national consultative referendum of February 24, 2019. The documents should be submitted to 119 V. Alecsandri St in Chisinau, office 202, before January 24, 2019. In the case of a referendum, the electoral body registers or refuses to register the candidates within three days of the receipt of documents. The election campaign for each candidate starts after the registration.