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Article I.
 

LAW FOR AMENDING AND COMPLETING CERTAIN LEGISLATIVE ACT


Electoral constituencies


(1) The parliamentary elections shall be organized based on a national constituency covering the entire territory of the Republic of Moldova and the polling stations from abroad, as well as based on 51 uninominal constituencies, including the ones established for the localities from the left side of the Nistru River
(Transnistria) and from abroad.


(2) The uninominal constituencies shall be approved by the Government based on the decision of an independent commission, the composition of which is established via a Government Decision and whose members on compulsory basis shall be the representatives of:


a) Central Election Commission;
b) Legal, Appointments and Immunities Committee of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova;
c) Presidency of the Republic of Moldova;
d) parliamentary fractions and groups;
e) extra-parliamentary political parties which obtained during the last parliamentary elections over 2% of the validly cast votes;
f) People’s Assembly of Gagauzia;
g) associations of national minorities;
h) local public authorities:
i) Bureau for Relations with Diaspora;
j) civil society and academia from the area, including geographers and sociologists.


(3) The independent Commission mentioned in para. (2) shall operate based on its own regulation approved by the Government and shall elect a Chair and a Secretary out of its members.


(4) When establishing the uninominal constituencies, the following territorialdemographic criteria shall be taken into consideration: a) the electoral constituencies on the territory of the Republic of Moldova under the jurisdiction of the constitutional authorities shall be based on a relatively equal number of voters and will cover between 55000 and 60000 voters entitled to vote;


b) the deviation of the number of voters between the uninominal electoral constituencies shall not exceed 10%;
c) the calculation basis for setting the uninominal constituencies shall be the number of voters registered in the voters’ lists at every polling station during the last general elections.
d) the uninominal constituency shall be set from the localities of one administrative-territorial unit of the second level or, for the purpose of optimal organization in the localities of a number of units of the same level;
e) if the number of voters in a locality is higher than the average calculated for an uninominal constituency, more uninominal constituencies shall be set in this locality. It is not admitted to place the borders of the uninominal constituencies internally within a territorial-administrative unit of the first level; f) the uninominal constituencies in which national minorities live compactly shall be established taking into account the interests of such minorities and considering the borders of the respective territorial-administrative units;
g) the uninominal constituencies on the territory of the Administrative Territorial Unit Gagauzia shall be established so as not to exceed the administrative borders of the autonomy, at the same time, it will not be possible to complete these constituencies with localities from outside the autonomy, taking into account the risk of diluting the national minority.


(5) When establishing the uninominal constituencies over the borders of the Republic of Moldova, the following criteria shall be taken into account, in particular:


a) the information held by the diplomatic missions and consular offices of the Republic of Moldova in the countries of residence;
b) the information held by the central public authorities, including the relevant official statistical data;
c) the information obtained as a result of the prior registration of the citizens staying abroad, according to the procedure set forth by the regulation approved by the Central Election Commission;
d) number of voters who have participated in the previous elections;
e) other relevant data obtained by the central public authorities, upon request, from the authorities of the host country, according to the legal conditions;
f) when establishing the borders of the constituencies established abroad, the Commission shall act in line with the regulation approved by the Government and will take into account the relevant geographic zones, such as: the member states of the European Union, Norway, Sieland, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, San Marino, countries from South-Eastern Europe which are not members of the European Union, Turkey, Israel; countries which are members of the Community of Independent States, Ukraine, Georgia, Asia, Middle East; North America, South America, Africa, Australia, New Zeeland, taking into account the borders of the states which will cannot be crossed internally.


(6) When establishing the uninominal constituencies for the localities from the left side of the River Nistru (Transnistria) the following criteria shall be taken into account, in particular:


a) the administrative borders of the administrative-territorial units on the right side and the left side of the River Nistru according to the Law on administrativeterritorial organization of the Republic of Moldova;
b) data from the State Voters’ Register, including the data based on the registration in advance, according to the procedure set by the regulation approved by the Central Election Commission;


(7) The review of the borders of the uninominal constituencies cannot be done in less than one year before the ordinary elections.


(8) The list of uninominal constituencies, indicating the number and the borders, shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova.