Romanian Govt. releases interactive map of voting stations abroad

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) has released a list and an interactive map of the 835 voting stations available outside of the country for the upcoming presidential elections.

Spain is the country where the most voting stations will be available, namely 143 compared to 50 available at the EU Parliament elections. Italy follows closely with 142 stations, compared to 76 at the EU elections.

In Germany there will be 80 stations, compared to 25 at the EU elections; in UK 72, from 29 at the EU elections; France 50, from 17; United States 38, from 31; Republic of Moldova 37, from 36; Netherlands 25, from 4; Belgium 23, from 8; Ireland 16, from 5; Denmark 12, from 7; Austria 17, from 9; Greece 11, from 4; Portugal 9, from 5; Switzerland 8, from 4.

The map is available here.

A total of 639 voting stations will be available in EU countries. Other stations will be available in theater of combat operations in Afghanistan, and, for the first time, in Mali.

At the 2014 presidential elections, 294 stations were set up abroad. At the 2016 parliamentary elections there were 417 stations abroad, while at this year’s EU Parliament elections there were 441 voting stations.

The voting process takes place abroad throughout the duration of three days for each voting round: November 8, 9, 10 for the first round, and November 22, 23, 24 for the second round. The stations will be open on Fridays between 12:00 and 21:00, and on Saturdays and Sundays between 07:00 – 21:00, local hours.

Those who at 21:00 are at the voting station or queuing to vote can cast their ballot by 23:59, local hours, the latest, MAE said.

This July, the Parliament voted to introduce multi-day voting for the Romanians living abroad as well as the option of correspondence voting. It came after major problems at the May 26 elections for the European Parliament, when the Romanians living abroad had to queue for hours to vote. Many couldn’t cast their ballot, leading to resentment and even incidents at some polling stations.

A total of 41,003 Romanians living abroad registered to vote by correspondence in the upcoming presidential elections, while another 38,944 registered to vote at ballot sections that will open outside of the country.

(Photo: Shutterstock)