CHISINAU. Oct 11 (Interfax) - An upcoming referendum on amending the Moldovan constitution can be recognized as valid only if at least 930,000 to 950,000 voters go to the polls, Pavel Postica, deputy chairman of the Moldovan Central Electoral Commission (CEC), said on Friday.
"The minimum voter turnout in the referendum must be at least one-third of the citizens included in the voter lists. Why one-third rather than more than a half, as some are speculating now? Because the Constitutional Court has clarified that the question put to this referendum does not concern the clauses on the state's sovereignty, independence, neutrality, and unitary nature, where the voter turnout would have to be 50% plus one," Postica said on the TV8 channel.
The voter register now includes around 3.3 million people, while the voter lists only 2.7 million people, Postica said. The latter figure does not include some 285,000 voters having no Moldovan residency registration, most of them currently staying abroad and not residing in Moldova, and also some 275,000 others who live in the Transdniestrian region, he said.
The basic figure to be used to calculate the voter turnout is the number of people included in the voter lists, Postica said. However, some unregistered voters and Transdniestrian residents will also go to the polls, and therefore, it is currently impossible to name the exact number of voters based on which one-third of those who cast their ballots is to be calculated, he said.
"At the moment, we cannot know [the figure] that we're going to proceed from. It will depend on how many unregistered voters and citizens from the left bank [of the Dniester river, i.e. Transdniestria] take part in the referendum," he said.
As a rule, around 1.5 million voters have cast their ballots in elections in Moldova recently, Postica said. Estimates show that at least 930,000 to 950,000 voters have to go to the polls for the referendum to be recognized as valid, and a simple majority of votes cast will be required for the amendments to be approved, he said.
Moldova will hold a presidential election on October 20. Eleven candidate are running for the post.
Simultaneously with the election, the country will conduct a constitutional referendum on its accession to the EU, in which voters will have to answer whether they support amendments to the constitution for Moldova to join the EU. If most of the voters cast their ballots in favor, a number of amendments will be made to the constitution, whose text has been approved by the Constitutional Court and will be published in the voting ballots.