A shift of emphasis is evident in the electoral period prior to the parliamentary elections of February 24 – from parties to politicians. The political process became personalized and they discuss more the persons and political leaders than ideologies and programs, stated political commentator Ion Tăbârță.
Asked by IPN to comment on the low number of parties registered in the national constituency compared with the previous parliamentary elections, Ion Tăbârță said the practically double decline is due to the introduction of the mixed system and the existence of the proportion of 50 and 51 seats of MP.
According to him, earlier there were always about four parties that managed to enter Parliament. These were parties with electoral chances, but there were more parties willing to reach the legislature. Now the number of those ready to become involved declined as the electoral chances of political parties halved. Under the previous electoral system, for example, a party scored 6%, which is the electoral threshold. Based on these 6%, plus the redistribution of the percentage of parties that didn’t pass the threshold, the given parties obtained 8-9 seats of MP. Now these 6% bring three or at most four MPs. This way the number of MPs representing parties can halve.
Ion Tăbârță noted another element of the current system is the fact that the small parties that earlier didn’t have chances of passing the election threshold can be now represented in Parliament. These bank on the fact that they can get one seat or two seats in a particular single-member constituency. “For example, in the case of the Shor Party, it is not clear if this party had entered Parliament if the proportional representation system would have been kept. Under the current electoral system, two-three representatives of this party will most probably enter Parliament. A similar situation, according to ratings, is witnessed in the case of the Political Party “Our Party”. On the national list, this has fewer chances, but has more chances in Balti or in another constituency in northern Moldova,” explained the commentator.
He said that in the current election campaign, they discuss persons, political leaders rather than ideologies and programs. At the local level, they discuss not the party, but a particular leader. “Surely, a particular politician who represents an influential political party increases the chances of winning in a particular single-member constituency. However, in a particular context, if there is a weak representative of a party in a constituency and the independent candidate there is a more powerful personality, the party has few chances of winning in this constituency,” stated Ion Tăbârță.
The time limit for filing applications to have the candidates registered as electoral competitors in the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 was January 24. Thus, fifteen parties submitted application to run in the national constituency and nine of these were already registered. A number of 24 electoral contenders ran in the parliamentary elections of 2014. Only four of these were independents.
