The Moldovan authorities that include the Central Election Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Government’s suggestion, must establish polling places so that the Moldovans could go to those addresses of polling places and vote, Dionis Cenușa, a political scientist, researcher at the Institute of Political Sciences at Liebig-Justus University in Giessen, stated in IPN’s public debate “Presidential elections in the diaspora and geopolitics”.
According to IPN’s senior contributor, the number of Moldovan voters abroad could decrease in the upcoming elections because many countries enter the second wave of the pandemic and a series of restrictions that would generate technical problems related to the possibility of going to the polling station could appear.
The pandemic conditions led to problems related to election monitoring, including for the OSCE-ODIHR observation mission that was limited to long-term observers. It thus means that the delegation of short-term observers on the election day and in the eventual runoffs is not possible.
“Besides the participation by Moldovans, we speak about the international observers’ capacity to monitor the electoral process. This happens owing to the travel restrictions introduced by all the countries in Europe, not only the Republic of Moldova. So, we must overcome a globally difficult situation,” stated Dionis Cenușa.
The expert is for postal voting and considers this could be applied in Moldova too, but not much time remained until the elections and the rules of the games cannot be changed now, even if they knew about the voting difficulties in Moldova long ago.
Dionis Cenușa, suggested that the polling stations abroad should work for two hours longer than earlier and the Central Election Commission should ensure the necessary sanitary conditions at the voting place.
“This is a concession, but is not sufficient to attract a Moldovan like me, who lives in a small town in Germany, to go and vote in Frankfurt, knowing that he should first travel by train and then by metro or by bus and to thus expose his health to risks,” he stated. Therefore, the expert considers that after the presidential elections, postal voting should be discussed so that there was a clear mechanism that would ensure Moldovans’ right to vote, regardless of the epidemiological or other conditions, in the next parliamentary elections that could be snap ones.
The public debate “Presidential elections in the diaspora and geopolitics” was the 156th installment of the series “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
