During the past two weeks, the number of polling stations that will be established abroad for the snap parliamentary elections of July 11 changed in the case of at least eight states according to the number of preregistrations alone, said Promo-LEX. The Association noted that based on the CEC’s intention to establish 150 polling stations abroad, the largest number of stations will be set up in Italy (28), the Russian Sedation (21), Germany (13), the UK (11), France (9) and Romania (9).

In a press briefing, Promo-Lex programs director Nicolae Panfil said that given the absence of embassies or consular officers in Denmark or Norway and the insignificant value of the three criteria stipulated by the legislation for determining the number and location of polling stations abroad, the establishment of polling stations in these countries becomes problematic and costly.

If taking into account the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ proposal to establish 191 polling stations, most of these should be set up in Italy (37), the Russian Federation (29), Germany (17), the UK (16), France (12) and Romania (11).

It was determined that in the case of at least eight states, the number of polling stations will be different. Besides Denmark and Norway, it is hard to establish polling stations in Ireland and Poland, where the number of stations will be lower by one, while this number in France, Germany, Italy and Portugal will be higher by one.

The decision concerning the number and location of polling stations abroad is taken based on three criteria: the number of voters who took part in the last national elections, the data concerning preregistration (which is over) and official statistics provided by the host countries, concerning the number of Moldovans in these states.

Compared with the presidential elections of November 2020, the number of voter preregistrations rose by about 40,000.