An unusual feature of voting in Moldova is the mobile voting box. Voters may request that the ballot box comes to them if they are bed-ridden or in prison, for example.
Observers may accompany the mobile box but on this mission we were advised not to as it’s too time consuming. At one polling station the mobile box came back while we were there, accompanied by the President, an assistant and a policeman. It strikes me it’s like a priest taking Communion to a sick parishioner.
Voting stopped at 9.00 pm and then the count begins. Polling stations had voter lists of around 2,700 and turnout was about 45% so it would have been manageable if there hadn’t been four ballot papers. Nevertheless the count we observed was done slickly. By 12.30 am it seemed to be almost over and we gave our driver a call to warn him we would be out soon. In fact there was a lot more to do. The ballot papers were wrapped in bundles in brown paper and much paperwork was done culminating in the production of a protocol showing the four results. A copy was given to the citizen, parliamentary and international observers and a copy posted outside the polling station – useful for insomniacs as by now it is 2.15 am.
The ballot papers are in two sealed sacks and other election paraphernalia has been bagged up, including the camera that was placed above the ballot boxes. We troop blearily outside and see it all being put in the boot of a car. In theory there should be a police escort but that didn’t happen. We drove behind the car to the DEC and watched it being unloaded and handed in. Our President then handed the protocol to the secretary of the DEC who verified that all was in order. There were 25 polling stations in our DEC and we were the 13th to arrive. Then we stayed to observe other polling stations arriving until finally it was all over and we were driven back to our hotel. I got into bed at 5.00 am. We were lucky; another STO team did not get back until 9.00 am – 27 hours after they left.