Moldova’s electoral body approves ballot for EU membership referendum

September 10 () –

Moldova’s Central Election Commission has approved the ballot template for the constitutional referendum on EU membership, which will be held on 20 October, the same day that citizens will vote in the presidential elections.

“The ballot paper will be purple. At the request of the electoral bodies of the respective constituencies, the ballot papers, written in Romanian, will be translated into another language in order to facilitate the participation of ethnic minorities,” the electoral body said in a statement.

Specifically, at the bottom left there will be the question: “Do you support the amendment of the Constitution for the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union?”. On the right there will be two squares with the words “yes” and “no”.

In May, the Moldovan parliament approved the holding of the referendum with the votes in favour of the deputies of the ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS). On the same day, they also gave the ‘green light’ to hold the presidential elections on 20 October.

If Moldovans give their approval to join the EU, several amendments to the Constitution will have to be made. The Constitution will include an article entitled ‘European integration’, which will indicate that the country adheres to the treaties that establish the EU and the laws that revise the founding treaties of the bloc.

The Moldovan government applied in March 2022 to join the European bloc, in a similar step taken by Ukraine a few months after the Russian invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 of the same year.