Nomination of candidates

(1) In Parliamentary and Presidential Elections, the procedure for the nomination of candidates shall start 60 days before the Elections Days and ends 30 days before the Elections Days. In local elections, candidates shall be nominated after the District Electoral Councils have been established in accordance with Article 157, but not earlier than 60 days before the Elections Days.

(2) The following entities shall have the right to nominate candidates, if they meet all requirements set forth by the present Code: a) political parties registered until the set of the date of elections, in accordance with their statutes (regulations) and legislation; b) electoral blocs of parties; c) citizens of the Republic of Moldova who submit their own applications (independent candidates, candidates for the position of President of the Republic of Moldova).

(3) The procedure for nomination of candidates shall comprise:

a) in the case of political parties and electoral blocs of parties – the approval, within the meetings of the bodies authorised in accordance with the statutory provisions, respectively, with the agreements for establishing them, confirmed by minutes (extracted from the minutes), of the decisions/orders on the nomination of candidates/lists of candidates for elective public positions. In presidential elections – establish initiative groups for the collection of signatures to support the nominated candidates, as well as prepare and submit the necessary documents for registration as an electoral competitor, under the conditions of this Code;
b) in the case independent candidates/candidates for the position of President of the Republic of Moldova — submit an application for an elective public position, where appropriate, to establish the initiative group to collect signatures to support the candidate, as well as prepare and submit the necessary documents for registration as an electoral competitor, under the conditions of this Code.

(4) The procedure for nomination of candidates shall also include the stage of collection of signatures by the persons who present their own candidature and/or by initiative groups to support candidates to elective positions.

(5) The subjects listed in paragraph (2) cannot take decisions on the initiation of the procedure for nomination of candidates/of their own candidature, before the beginning of the nomination period referred to in paragraph (1) and the documents drawn up for that purpose, before the beginning of the period referred to in paragraph (1), shall be considered null.