Moldova: "Nyet" to Additional Polling Stations Abroad
Moldova’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has ignored requests of non-governmental organizations representing Moldovan Diaspora to open additional polling stations abroad for parliamentary elections scheduled for April 5th, 2009.
“Polling stations abroad will be opened only in the Moldovan diplomatic missions and consular offices,” the commission stated in a recent communiqué. “The national legislation should be amended to allow the opening of more polling stations abroad,” was the excuse, arguing also that the electoral code does not provide legal base for opening polling stations in the countries where Moldova has no diplomatic representation and outside the embassies and consulates. Moldova does not allow to vote by mail or through Internet.
In a letter sent to Moldovan authorities on February 11, representatives of some 13 non-governmental organizations that represent Moldovan Diaspora groups in the Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and the United States have asked the officials to respect their right to vote.
Official and unofficial statistics suggest that between five hundred thousand to one million citizens of the Republic of Moldova reside abroad in search for better jobs. Despite this huge number of Moldovan emigrants (Moldova’s total population is about four million) in the parliamentary elections of 2001 and 2005 just several thousand voted due to the small number of voting stations.
Moldovans living in countries like Italy, Romania, Russia, and the United States have to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to cast their vote. Some Moldovans are in an impossible situation to vote at all in Canada, Ireland, and Spain, where the Republic of Moldova doesn’t have diplomatic or consular missions.
The underlying reason for Moldovan authorities’ refusal to open more polling stations abroad is the low number of votes that the ruling party in Moldova, the Party of Communists, received at previous parliamentary elections from overseas voters. Both in 2001 and 2005 elections, the Communists got only some five per cent of the casted votes abroad.
In the same letter, the civil society groups have also asked the Moldovan Parliament and executive bodies for the modification of the electoral legislation in order for them to vote by Internet or by mail ballots, as it is practiced in some countries.
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