A national consultative referendum will take place simultaneously with the parliamentary elections on February 24, 2019. On November 30, 2018, Parliament adopted a decision on the holding of the plebiscite. In the referendum, the voters will answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ two questions: if they want the number of MPs to be reduced from 101 to 61, and if they want the MPs to be recalled if these do not fulfil their duties.
Under the Election Code, the consultative referendum raises problems of national interest in order to find out people’s opinions about such issues so that the competent public authorities could later adopt definitive decisions. The Moldovans who settled abroad also take part in the plebiscite.
Under a decision taken by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on December 18, 2018, the parties and sociopolitical organizations that were authorized to take part in the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 can participate in the referendum. The list of these organizations was published on December 11, 2018.
The registration of the participant in the referendum starts 60 days before the plebiscite and ends on the voting day. The candidates in the referendum are registered with the option “for” or “against”. Those who do not register as candidates in the referendum cannot become involved in electoral agitation. Two participants in the referendum were registered by January 24. These are the Democratic Party, which was registered with the option “for”, and the Party of Communists, which was registered with the option ”against”.
The ballot for the referendum contains the text of the question and two rectangles with the words “for” and “against” on the horizontal on the right side. There is a circle below each of these. The voter puts the stamp “Voted” inside one of the circles under the rectangle with “for” or “against”.
Voting in the referendum starts and ends in the conditions specified by law for the parliamentary elections and lasts from 7am until 9pm. When the time reserved for voting expires, the electoral bureau of the polling place starts to count the votes and draws up a report that is sent to the CEC. The CEC declares the referendum valid if it involves at least 1/3 of the persons put on the voter rolls. The decision is considered adopted by referendum if most of the citizens who took part in it voted in favor.
After all the data are processed, the CEC produces a report and indicates the number of votes “for” and the number of votes “against” in it and adopts a decision. The documents are remitted to the Constitutional Court. Within ten days, the Court examines the documents submitted by the CEC and confirms or invalidates the results of the national referendum by a decision.
The results of the referendum of February 24 will be consultative in character and imply no immediate action. The costs for holding the upcoming plebiscite were estimated at over 10 million lei.
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The IPN division “Elections in plain words” is designed to explain notions, terms and practices related to the parliamentary elections based on the mixed electoral system and the consultative referendum that will take place on February 24, 2019.
