Another initiative group for holding the referendum on the abrogation of the law by which the mixed-member electoral system was introduced by making changes to the Election Code was set up on February 11 after the group constituted on December 17, 2017 wasn’t registered by the Central Election Commission (CEC). The new initiative group includes over 790 persons of the more than 800 participants in the general constitution assembly, IPN reports.

The activity of the initiative group will be coordinated by an Executive Bureau. Stefan Gligor, programs director at the Center for Politics and Reforms, was reelected as head of the Executive Bureau. Stella Utica, expert of the Institute for Public Policy, will serve as deputy head, while “WatchDog” community expert Valeriu Pasa as secretary general.

Stefan Gligor said the decision to hold a new assembly to constitute the initiative group was taken in a move to prevent the CEC from invoking any pretexts, no matter how formal these can be, for not registering the group. He made reference to a report by “Promo-LEX” Association, which showed that the reasons invoked by the Central Election Commission were irrelevant and insufficient.

For his part, Valeriu Pasa noted that the group will not renounce democracy and, if the CEC does not register it this time again, assemblies will he staged again and again. “Holding such an assembly is our form of protest,” he stated.

Balti councilor Elena Gritsko said the assembly to constitute the initiative group is a manifestation of the movement of resistance to the measures taken by the government. “The regime is afraid of the direct manifestation of the people’s will and thus blocks any initiative to hold this referendum and the plebiscite in Balti,” she stated.

The documents for having the initiative group registered will be submitted to the CEC in order to start collecting signatures. If the CEC registers the initiative group, this will have to collect at least 200,000 signatures in favor of the plebiscite during two-three months.

On January 12, the Central Election Commission rejected the application to register the initiative group for holding the referendum on the abrogation of the law by which the mixed-member electoral system was introduced. CEC president Alina Russu said the Commission identified violations of the legal norms and of the Election Code in the proceedings of the constitution assembly as these contained contradictory data and discrepancies related to the number of participants. The CEC also doubted the accuracy of the figures included in the proceedings.