Presidential elections, republican constitutional referendum on EU membership held in Moldova

Chisinau, Oct. 20 /MOLDPRES/- Elections for head of state and a republican constitutional referendum on the country's accession to the European Union will be held in Moldova on Sunday, with voting starting at 07.00 and ending at 21.00.

The first polling station was opened in Tokyo, Japan, and the first Moldovan to vote in these elections is Ludmila Vizdoagă, who has been living in the diaspora for 19 years and traveled 1300 km from the Republic of Korea to Japan to exercise her duty as a citizen.

Voters will be able to vote in some 2,000 polling stations

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has organized 1,988 polling stations across the country for the elections, 30 of which are for citizens on the left bank of the Dniester. In total, more than 25,000 election employees will work at polling stations.

Abroad, voters will be able to vote at 228 polling stations. Their locations can be found on the Commission's website and on diaspora.cec.md.

In this election, more than 1,340 citizens cast their vote by post. In the presidential elections and the republican constitutional referendum, voting by post was implemented for the first time in six countries: the USA, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland.

For the presidential elections and the republican constitutional referendum, the CEC printed more than 7.3 million ballot papers. About 1.7 million ballots were printed for voters abroad. For this election, ballots were printed in five ethnic minority languages.

On election day, citizens at home and abroad will be able to vote on the basis of their identity card or passport. In total, some 42,000 young people will be able to vote for the first time.

The elections will be monitored by 2,061 national and international observers. They will follow the voting, count the ballots and tally the results.

11 candidates for President of the Republic of Moldova

There will be 11 candidates on the ballot paper for the election of the President of the country. They are Alexandr Stoianoglo, nominated by the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, candidate of the Action and Solidarity Party, Renato Usatii, nominated by the Our Party, Vasile Tarlev - Party for the Future of Moldova.

Other candidates are Ion Chicu, nominated by the Party for Development and Consolidation of Moldova, and Irina Vlah, nominated by a citizens' group. They are followed by Andrei Nastase, nominated by a citizens' group and Octavian Țîcu -  ÎMPREUNĂ electoral bloc.

The last three candidates are Victoria Furtună, Natalia Morari and Tudor Ulianovschi. They were nominated by a group of citizens.

Republican constitutional referendum

The republican constitutional referendum is also taking place in Moldova today. Citizens will answer the question "Do you agree with amending the Constitution for Moldova's accession to the European Union?". The referendum question will be printed on a separate ballot paper and citizens will be able to answer "YES" or "NO" for the amendment of the Constitution.

The draft amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova sees the addition of two new paragraphs to the Constitution, reconfirming the European identity of the people of the Republic of Moldova and the irreversibility of the European path of our country. The integration of the Republic of Moldova into the European Union will also be declared as a strategic goal of the country.

The republican constitutional referendum is organized on the initiative of President of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu. The initiative to revise the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova has been signed by 46 MPs and has been approved by the Constitutional Court.

The referendum will be validated if at least one third of the voters registered on the electoral lists participate.