At 7am on February 24, all the polling places established on Moldova’s territory for the parliamentary elections and the consultative referendum were opened without incidents. The first polling place overseas was opened in Tokyo, while the last polling places will be opened in the U.S. and Canada.

President of the Central Election Commission Alina Russu told a press briefing that there are no technical possibilities for the Commission to report separately the number of participants in the elections and in the referendum. This way, the preliminary results concerning the minimum voter turnout at the referendum will be made public after 9pm. The CEC will present data about the voter turnout in elections at 1pm, 6:30pm and 10pm, IPN reports.

On February 24, for the first time in the Republic of Moldova, the 101 MPs are elected based on the mixed electoral system under which 50 MPs are elected according to party lists in the national constituency, while 51 MPs are elected in 51 single-member constituencies.

There are 15 election contestants in the national constituency and 321 contenders in the 51 single-member constituencies. A number of 57 candidates are independent, while 264 represent parties.

In the consultative referendum, the participants will answer two questions: “Do you want the number of MPs to be reduced from 101 to 61?” and “Do you want the MPs to be recalled if these do not fulfil their duties?”.

The elections are overseen by 3,389 national observers and 776 international observers.