The Central Electoral Commission goes to the Supreme Court of Justice after the Court of Appeal annulled their decision to open only 146 polling stations abroad and obliged the institution to increase them to at least 190 as it was recommended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Several political parties requested the Court of Appeal to examine the decision of the Central Electoral Commission to open only 146 polling stations abroad. The authors of the appeals demand the opening of a larger number of polling stations for citizens in the diaspora than the one approved by the Electoral Commission. The case was examined for seven days at the Chișinău Court of Appeal. During this period there were over 45 hours of hearings, no less than ten applications for recusal resulting in the removal of a magistrate from the examination of the case, a request for unconstitutionality admitted and sent to the Constitutional Court for examination, subsequently rejected, declared inadmissible and sent back to the Court of Appeal.

President Maia Sandu commented on the situation claiming that “some politicians are putting pressure on the members of the Central Electoral Commission not to increase the number of polling stations abroad,” and that they “have no justification for not increasing the number of polling stations as it was proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

“Obviously we need to improve the legal framework because there are gaps there that certain people or political forces that influence state institutions try to use in their own interest to prevent the vote of citizens in the diaspora or not to allow sufficient participation. We need qualified people in these institutions who would be responsible for organizing the elections. We have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ information regarding the availability of the host countries to organize these polling stations, we also have the availability of the Government to finance the opening of these polling stations. So all that was needed was good intentions and fairness on the part of the Electoral Commission members. There is no justification for not creating the number of polling stations that was proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (…) I understand that some members of the Central Electoral Commission are being pressured by some political members not to increase the number of polling stations,” said President Maia Sandu.