The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has expressed concern over the unusually high number of Moldovan citizens pre-registered to vote from abroad, particularly in the Russian Federation.
According to CEC Chairwoman Angela Caraman, the number of Moldovans registered from Russia has nearly doubled — from 7,000 in 2024 to 13,000 this year, compared to fewer than 6,000 during the entire period 2018–2023.
“We must underline the unusually high number of registrations from Russia. When analyzing the data, we noticed that many email addresses used for registration were suspicious — differing by only one letter or digit, such as Moldova-1, Moldova-2, Molodva-3, often on domains like yandex.ru or mail.ru. In several cases, individuals told us they had never registered or even used the application,” Caraman told REALITATEA.
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She also recalled irregularities in the 2024 elections:
“Out of nearly 7,000 citizens preliminarily registered in Russia, about 800 voted in Moldova. Some admitted they had not left the country for 10–12 years. Our conclusion was that these registrations were not individual but rather organized.”
Caraman further warned about the spread of misinformation online:
“We are seeing more fake news and manipulative videos. Today, for instance, we had to debunk a false claim about a ballot paper that was supposedly already stamped. Whenever we detect such disinformation, we issue clarifications and, where necessary, request removal of the content.”
The CEC cautions that both misinformation campaigns and suspicious voter registrations risk undermining citizens’ freedom of choice during the current electoral cycle.