We should not have illusions that the number of voters who will use postal voting will be extremely high. According to the deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission Pavel Postica, postal voting is instituted to give the Moldovan citizens in Canada and the U.S. the possibility to vote without traveling thousands of kilometers to the polling station. Postal voting costs the state more than voters’ participation in elections with physical presence, IPN reports.
The draft law to pilot postal voting was registered in Parliament by a group of PAS MPs. According to the legislative initiative, only Moldovan citizens from Canada and the U.S. will benefit from postal voting at the first stage.
“The size of these states, the small number of precincts previously established in these states, the enormous distances between polling stations and, most importantly, the wide implementation of postal voting in both of the states were taken into account. Postal voting is successfully implemented in both of the states and the citizens residing in these states trust the postal system, which can contribute to increasing the level of confidence in postal voting in the Republic of Moldova. We should not have illusions that the number of voters who will use this alternative voting method will increase exponentially,” Pavel Postica stated in the talk show “Resumé” on RliveTV channel.
According to the draft law, postal voting will be exercised earlier, before election day. The costs associated with the organization and conduct of voting by mail will be covered with state budget funds.
“We should not have illusions that the number will be extraordinarily high first of all because there is no trust or there may not be trust, also due to the critical discussions. We need to see to what extent it is possible to implement this alternative voting method on a large scale as we must admit that this method is more expensive for the state than the usual method. When the voter comes to the polling station by trolleybus, car or plane, they come on their own, but when we talk about postal voting, that correspondence is provided on the account of the state,” explained the deputy chairman of the Central Electoral Commission.
The parliamentary opposition criticized the PAS government’s decision to institute postal voting, citing attempts to rig the elections. According to opposition lawmakers, the establishment of postal voting only in Canada and the U.S. represents discrimination against Moldovan citizens settled in other states and, after its adoption, the law will be challenged in the Constitutional Court.
