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Parliament adopted, by majority vote of AEI MPs, the draft law amending and supplementing certain legislative acts, which provides for amending the Electoral Code and related acts of electoral matters. Electoral Code amendments refer to:

• specifying duties of the electoral authorities by detachment from the places of permanent work of the electoral officials (Article 28, Electoral Code);
• CEC members required to get involved in preparing the ballot matrix, in printing the ballots and the liquidation of the matrix in order to provide additional security and control of this process (Article 49, EC);
• providing the necessary number of ballots for the electoral bureaus of the polling stations established outside the Republic of Moldova (Art. 49);
• unification of the time provided for examination of all kinds of electoral appeals (Art.67, EC);
• the right of students and pupils to vote at any polling station in the locality where the educational institution in which they are enrolled is placed, by observing some particular conditions: • ID presentation; • presentation of student card; • signing a self liability declaration; • listing in the supplementary list and mentioning in the appropriate educational institution (Article 84, EC).

Changes to related legislation provide:

• to establish criminal liability for voting without having this right, for voting two or more times by introducing several ballots in the ballot box, by using a counterfeit ID or ballot (Art.182, Criminal Code);
• to sanction for producing and/or disseminating electoral advertising materials without indicating the name of electoral competitor, date of printing, no. of copies and the name of the printing house that printed them (Article 50, Contravention Code (Code on Administrative Offences));
• possibility to develop and adopt normative acts of the CEC during the electoral period, without undergoing through the stages of consulting with the public (Art.14 of the Law on Transparency in the decision-making process).

The PCRM MPs have opposed to these amendments, considering that they discriminate the other groups of voters and provide opportunities for falsifying the votes. Simultaneously, PCRM proposed to review the Electoral Code regarding the distribution of MP mandates and to return to their proportionate distribution, according to the formula previously existing in electoral law (D’Hont formula). AEI members did not accept the proposal made by the opposition, saying that the recently established formula is fairer, ensuring the equal distribution of mandates, without favouring any competitors and without distorting the voters’ choice.

Promo-LEX Association has launched its final report of monitoring the constitutional referendum in 40 polling stations located outside of the Republic of Moldova. According to the report, the observers noted a high degree of satisfaction and enthusiasm among the citizens at the polling stations opened in cities abroad where Moldova does not have embassies or consulates and did not find cases of intimidation of voters or observers by electoral authorities. However, the observers noted some shortcomings, such as:

• an inadequate level of training for members of electoral bureaus;
• many cases when polling stations were opened after 07:00;
• absence of some members of electoral bodies in the Referendum Day;
• very weak awareness raising campaign for voters abroad;
• frequent cases when representatives of local law enforcement were present and that could intimidate the Moldovan citizens lacking the necessary documents for residing in those countries.

The report contains a number of recommendations for the electoral authorities, public authorities and the electoral participants. (Press release of Promo-LEX Association)