Presidential Election and Constitutional Referendum, 20 October 2024
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Mission at a glance
Head of Mission: Urszula Gacek
Core team of 11 experts from 9 OSCE participating States, based in Chişinău.
Mission schedule
12 September: Arrival of the core team
18 September: Arrival of long-term observers
19 September: Briefing of long-term observers
20 September: Deployment of long-term observers throughout the country
16 October: Arrival of short-term observers
17 October: Briefing of short-term observers
18 October: Deployment of short-term observers throughout the country
20 October: Election day
21 October: Press conference on preliminary findings and conclusions
23 October: Departure of short-term observers
26 October: Departure of long-term observers
27 October: Departure of the core team
The mission calendar may be extended in case of the second round of the presidential election.
Following an invitation to observe the presidential election and constitutional referendum in Moldova scheduled for 20 October 2024, and in accordance with its mandate, ODIHR has deployed an Election Observation Mission (EOM).
Long-term Observation
The mission is led by Urszula Gacek and consists of a core team of 11 experts based in Chişinău. In addition, 26 long-term observers will be deployed throughout the country from 20 September.
The mission will assess the election and referendum for their compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards, as well as with national legislation.
Observers will closely follow fundamental components of the electoral process such as:
- voter registration
- candidate registration
- campaign activities and financing
- the work of the election administration and relevant state institutions
- election-related legislation and its implementation
- the resolution of election-related disputes
The ODIHR EOM will conduct qualitative and quantitative monitoring of media coverage of the election campaign as well as a limited observation of election campaigns on social networks.
Election Day
ODIHR will request 200 short-term observers from OSCE participating States to be deployed immediately prior to the 20 October election and referendum. The short-term observers will be deployed throughout the country in multinational teams of two, which will monitor:
- the opening of polling stations
- the voting
- the counting of ballots
- the tabulation of results at all levels.
Co-operation with other partners
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament intend to deploy observer delegations.
The day after the elections, ODIHR, together with its international partners, will issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference. A final report on the observation of the entire electoral process will be issued some months after the end of the election process.
Previous Elections
ODIHR has previously observed 17 elections in Moldova, most recently the 2023 local elections.