CEC president: Locale elections will cost state budget 178m lei

17.01.2023 06:52
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3 minute(s)

The local general elections of this year will cost the state budget about 178 million lei, said the president of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Angelica Caraman. She noted that event if the state of emergency is extended in Moldova, this will not affect the holding of elections as the CEC already organized elections during the state of emergency by derogation from the law, IPN reports.

Under the new Electoral Code that took effect at the beginning of this year, the local general elections will be held on the last Sunday of October or on the first Sunday of November.

“The exact date will be set by the CEC 70 days before election day. We wanted such a provision to exist in the Electoral Code so that we have predictability and the people could get ready for elections when they know the date of elections. The budget for the local general elections was estimated at 178 million lei. 80% of the sum will go to pay salaries to members of electoral bodies. A sum of 154 million lei was allocated through the state budget law and the sum is expected to be raised when the budget is amended as costs will be incurred for the runoff vote,” Angelica Caraman stated in the program “Parallel 47” on Radio Moldova channel.

The governor of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia Irina Vlah earlier said that the government intended to put off the local elections by invoking the state of emergency, but the CEC president said the institution gets ready for elections and an eventual delay hasn’t been considered.

“We had three electoral exercises during the state of emergency – the elections of the autumn of 2021 and the elections of the spring and of the autumn of 2022, with the relevant changes being made to the Parliament decision. The law on the state of emergency stipulates that elections cannot be held, but an exception is the situation when the state of emergency does not directly affect the electoral exercise. I don’t know about a possible postponement,” said Angelica Caraman.

The first round of the last local elections took place on October 20, 2019. Under the law, the local elected officials serve a four-year term in office.