Establishment and location of polling units

(amended by Law No. 74/2012, dated 19 July 2012 and point 8 repealed by Law No. 31/2015, dated 2 April 2015; figure amended in points 1 and 7 by Law No 101/2020, dated 23 July 2020)

1. A polling unit must be part of a compact and continuous geographic territory and the number of voters in each voting centre must not be lower than 300 and larger than 1,000 voters.

2. Special institutions shall constitute a special polling unit. A voting centre in such institutions shall be established when there are more than 15 voters.

3. The existing boundaries of the polling unit shall not change, except when the change is indispensable, because the requirements specified in point 1 of this Article are not met. The CEC, upon a special instruction, shall number polling units with unique numbers at a national level.

4. The voting centre shall be located at the same address as in previous elections, except when this is not possible due to objective reasons or reasons set forth in Article 93. The location of the voting centre may not change during the last 40 days prior to the election date, except for when, due to force majeure, such a change is authorised by the CEC.

5. No later than the deadline determined in point 1 of Article 51 of this Code, the mayor of the local government unit shall determine and announce the location of the voting centre, in compliance with the criteria determined in point 4 of this Article.

6. When a polling unit has more than 1,000 voters and the list is split according to
Article 51 of this Code, the mayor of the local government unit shall decide to establish an additional voting centre within the same unit. In this case, the new voting centre shall be established, when possible, in the same building as the existing voting centre and shall be numbered according to the unique national system of numbering voting centres.

7. When a polling unit has fewer than 300 voters, the mayor of the local government unit shall decide to merge it with the nearest polling unit with the highest number of voters, which is also accessible by road. As a rule, the new voting centre shall not be farther than 5 km from the polling unit that is being merged in rural areas. If both these criteria cannot be met, the criterion of the minimal number of voters shall prevail. The number of the merged voting centre shall be suspended and such suspension shall not affect the existing numbering of the other voting centres. The CEC shall establish, by a normative act, the criteria and procedures for the merging of the voting centres in accordance with this point. 

8. Repealed.

9. No later than 10 days from the establishment of the voting centre, in accordance with this Article, the mayor of the local government unit shall be obliged to notify the CEC. The notification on the location shall also be accompanied withthe blueprint, the type of building, and other information determined in the CEC normative act.

10. Based on the information received by the mayors of local government units pursuant to this Article, the CEC shall create and update the polling units map and establish a database on the location of the voting centres. The representatives of the political parties accredited to the CEC shall have the right to access them at any time.

11. Within the deadlines envisaged in this Article, on its own initiative or upon a complaint by party representatives to the CEC, the CEC shall intervene to apply the requirements and criteria related to the voting centre, number of voters, and their location. The voting centre shall not change after the decision of the CEC.

12. In the event of refusal to apply CEC orders related to voting centres, the CEC shall fine the mayor of the local government unit from ALL 50,000 to ALL 100,000, and notify the prefect on the execution of the decision on the establishment of the voting centres. The fine shall constitute an executive title and shall be executed in accordance with the Civil Procedure Code.