Electoral system family

Central Electoral Commission of Moldova (Comisia Electorală Centrală a Republicii Moldova), Electoral Code of the Republic of Moldova: Code No. 325 of 08-12-2022 unofficial translation (Parlamentul Cod Nr. 325 din 08-12-2022 Codul Electoral), accessed 14 April 2025

Article 122. Setting the representation threshold:

(1) After receiving the minutes of the District Electoral Councils on the votes counting results from all Electoral districts, the Central Electoral Commission shall tabulate the number of valid expressed votes, obtained by each electoral competitor, in order to determine whether they have reached the minimum threshold of representation. 

(2) The minimum representation threshold shall be the following percentages of valid votes expressed overall per country: a) for an electoral bloc of parties – 7 %; b) for a political party – 5 %; c) for an independent candidate – 2 %. 

(3) Electoral competitors who received fewer votes than the percentage provided in paragraph (2) shall be excluded from the procedure of mandate assignment, by the decision of the Central Electoral Commission.

Article 123. Counting the Mandates obtained by the electoral competitor:

(1) The number of mandates obtained by each competitor shall be calculated by the Central Electoral Commission by successively dividing the number of valid votes given to each competitor, besides independent candidates, with 1, 2, 3, 4 etc., up to the figure that corresponds to the number of seats established for the Parliament. 

(2) From the results of all the divisions and the number of valid votes cast for independent candidates, it should be selected in descending order as many numbers as there are seats to be allocated. The number of the mandates assigned to each political party or electoral bloc of parties is equal to the quantity of numbers obtained by them from this descending row. 

(3) Independent candidate shall be considered elected if the number of valid obtained votes represents at least two per cent from the valid votes casted across the country.

Article 124. Assigning the Members of Parliament seats:

(1) The Central Electoral Commission shall assign the seats to electoral competitors according to the order in which they have been recorded in the lists. 

(2) Candidates included in the lists of electoral competitors that surpassed the representation threshold referred to in Article 122, but have not been elected shall be declared as alternates. An alternate candidate shall be declared as elected by the Constitutional Court, upon the request of the Central Electoral Commission, if, for whatever reasons, a seat belonging to a political party or to an electoral bloc of parties becomes vacant. The alternate candidate may refuse the offered seat, by submitting a written application with the Central Electoral Commission. 

(3) If a political party or an electoral bloc of parties obtains a number of seats that exceeds the number of candidates included in the list, the concerned political party or the electoral bloc of parties shall receive a number of seats that is equal to the number of candidates included in the list. 

(4) The remaining seats shall be reassigned to other political parties or electoral blocs of parties in the manner laid down in Article 123 (1). The same procedure shall apply to subsequent vacancies for the position of Member of Parliament, if the electoral competitor does not have alternate candidates or if became vacant the MP mandate obtained by an independent candidate.