The pre-registration of voters does not seem to count much for the Central Election Commission (CEC) and this is regrettable. On September 11, the CEC presented a draft proposal on the number of polling stations (PSs) that will be established abroad to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. This didn’t contain its viewpoint or argumentation and wasn’t consulted publicly and was presented before the expiry of the pre-registration deadline, said the head of Promo-LEX’s observation mission for the presidential elections Pavel Postica, who presented the second monitoring report on the November 1 elections, IPN reports.
Pavel Postica said the pre-registration of voters for voting in polling stations abroad and in the Transnistrian region ended on 16 September 2020. The total number of registrations (2018-2020) at the end of the procedure was 60,035, out of which 35,910 in the context of the presidential election. Most requests for prior registration during 2020 concerned: Italy – 12,067, Great Britain – 9,478, Germany – 6,423 and Russian Federation – 6,202.
In its draft to the Ministry, the CEC proposed establishing 202 polling stations abroad. “Promo-LEX treats with suspicion the authority’s initiative to increase their number, compared to 150 PSs planned under the CEC budget. This position is explained by the fact that the CEC already had preliminary information on the possible refusal of some states to open PSs outside the locations of diplomatic missions,” stated Pavel Postica.
According to the law, pre-registration is one of the three criteria on the basis of which the polling stations are to be established. The fact that a decision was made on the establishment of polling stations before the legal deadline and without taking into account all pre-registration applications could weaken the public trust in this procedure and arouse suspicions that the decision was politicized.
The Observation Mission for the Elections of the President of the Republic of Moldova on 1 November 2020 is conducted by Promo-LEX Association with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) via the ‘Democracy, Transparency and Accountability’ Program and of the Good Governance Department of Soros Foundation Moldova under ‘Monitoring the Presidential Elections of 1 November 2020’ Project.
