The Government approved the bill on the women’s representation in the political life in 2010, but it hasn’t been yet adopted by Parliament. Representatives of civil society said that despite the promises to support this initiative, the bill is not included in the agenda of Parliament. It is almost two weeks until the end of the spring-summer session of Parliament, but the civil society representatives do not have much hope that this bill will be examined by the legislature by then.

In a news conference at IPN, executive director of the Partnership for Development Center Alexei Buzu said that if the bill is not passed in the near future and does not take effect before this autumn’s parliamentary elocutions, the women’s representation in administrative posts will not increase. On the contrary, there is the risk that the number of women in Parliament will fall.

He also referred to the delay in adopting the package of laws on the financing of election campaigns and political parties. “In this year’s elections, parties and places in the lists of candidates could be bought again,” stated Alexei Buzu.

Secretary General of the NGO Council Antonita Fonari said that there won’t be many women candidates in the election campaign of this autumn because the women cannot buy places as the oligarchs, who are mainly male in Moldova, do.

Civil society calls on Parliament to immediately adopt the bill on the financing of election campaigns given that it was endorsed by the Venice Commission, while the Council of Europe requested Parliament to adopt this package in 2012.

Alexei Buzu noted that the law on media ownership transparency is also very important and should be passed as soon as possible. He considers that some of the TV channels in Moldova can be easily bought by players from outside at a time when the state institutions, such as the Central Election Commission, the Security and Information Service and the Audit Office, are not empowered to monitor these processes.