Angela Karaman, CEC Chairperson
CEC chairwoman Angela Karaman said that at first the calculations showed 2.7 million lei. However, after checking the financial reports at the end of the voting procedure, the amount was reduced.
“Based on this, we calculated how much one voter’s vote sent by mail costs,” she commented. – If we take into account the cost of voting ballots and mailing, it will be more than 400 lei on average. If we add the cost of the information system, as well as the work of polling station members, it rises to 1,077 lei.
Earlier there was much talk about the sum of 19 million lei. It appeared at the time of discussion of the feasibility and cost for the state of voting by mail. As the CEC chairman explains, it was a preliminary cost budget prepared by the Central Election Commission. “We proceeded from the fact that a maximum of 2,500 people could vote at four polling stations,” she says. – Accordingly, the calculations were based on the participation of 10,000 voters in the postal voting procedure. We took the average price of mail to the U.S. and Canada, added the cost of the information system through which the records were kept, and the work of polling station members. Pre-registered for this procedure were 1,900 people. But 1,300 people actually voted in the first round and 1,400 in the second round. Out of the planned four polling stations, voting took place in three, which also reduced costs. In addition, the cost of the program turned out to be lower in practice because we had help from our colleagues at the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Center (STISC). In the end, less than 2 million lei was used in total.
At the same time, Igor Bocan, head of the non-governmental organization Adept, believes that one voter’s vote sent by mail cost the state at least 100 euros. This difference arises because not all voters who pre-registered online ended up voting. Therefore, when distributing the costs per voter, the cost of a vote increased, the CEC explained.
When asked by Logos Press in which countries Moldovan citizens will be able to vote by mail in this year’s parliamentary elections, Angela Caraman said: “Voting by mail meets the legal requirements for providing citizens with the necessary conditions for voting. We implemented it within the framework of a pilot project. It required that postal voting be widely used in the country concerned and that postal communications be reliable. Similar recommendations are contained in the Venice Commission documents. Therefore, the list of countries depends on the extent to which they meet these conditions. The countries that were selected for postal voting in 2024 met these conditions.
