Moldova remained a significant way from having a functionally independent judiciary, which is an indispensable element in the country’s capacity to deliver justice for its people and institutions. Many significant legislative reforms have been undertaken, but judicial independence is far from being achieved in Moldova. Reforms are needed in the law, but more than that a change is needed in the mindset and working culture of many judges themselves that must protect and promote judicial independence in all of their work, says a report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) that was presented in Chisinau in an event staged by the Legal Resources Center from Moldova. The report authors recommend that the composition of the SCM should be changed by removing the ex-officio membership of the Minister of Justice, Prosecutor General and the President of the Supreme Court of Justice. The number of judges from the first instance courts should be increased to ensure a greater level of representativeness. The initial temporary appointment of judges for a five-year term should be abolished. The judges of the Supreme Court of Justice should be appointed by the President, similar to the other judges, rather than by the Parliament, etc. etc.
The executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy Igor Boțan said the statement made by the bloc ACUM concerning the package of bills it will propose in Parliament is a counteroffer for the Democratic Party rather than for the Party of Socialists. “A political statement should be adopted first to show that there is the political will needed for de-oligarchization. Afterward, if the PDM accepts, it should find arguments to persuade the directors of the respective institutions to resign. These should be only persuaded as they cannot be dismissed,” stated Igor Boțan, referring to ACUM’s proposal to vote a package of laws on the removal of the chiefs of a number of state institutions.
After the bloc ACUM DA PAS rejected the Party of Socialists’ invitation to discuss the formation of a parliamentary majority, the bloc’s co-president Andrei Năstase said the bills proposed by ACUM will be discussed in Parliament, not at the head offices of parties. He noted that all the initiatives were made public before they were invited to form coalitions and are intended for all the newly elected MPs. “We didn’t say we want to form an alliance with one party or another. We came with a set of things that should be done in this period. We address each of the MPs as, either we want it or not, the Constitutional Court controlled by Plahotniuc decided to validate all the seats,” the politician stated in the talk show “Expertise hour” on Jurnal TV channel.
The organization of transport to polling places is not a violation of the electoral legislation. “If the person is transported to the polling station in an organized way to vote and is imposed to vote and this cannot express his/her will freely, this is a penal deviation and we had related complaints on the election day. We transmitted these complaints to the competent bodies for being investigated,” chairwoman of the Central Elected Commission Alina Russu was quoted as saying in the talk show “Moldova live” on the public TV channel Moldova 1.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) said it placed the scanned version of the originals of electoral offices’ reports on the counting of votes cast in the February 24, 2019 parliamentary elections on www.cec.md. This way, those interested can consult the election results in each polling place and electoral constituency established in the country or outside it.
In the pre-electoral and electoral period, a part of the broadcasters were openly biased politically and favored particular election runners, disadvantaging others. There were also broadcasters that behaved impartially, offering access to election contestants running in single-member constituencies and in the national constituency. The news portals also had diverse behavior. There was a crucial mass of portals that didn’t show political bias and also a series of ‘party portals’, shows the final monitoring report that covers the period between January 9 and February 24, 2019. The monitoring embraced 28 media outlets and was carried out as part of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections by the Association of Independent Press and the Independent Journalism Center.
Over 150 companies from nine countries will display their offer of innovations, technologies and equipment for the agro-industrial sector, phytosanitary products and fertilizers at the exhibitions center “Moldexpo” during March 13-16. The exhibition “Moldagrotech” involves companies from Moldova, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The event will include a series of seminars, roundtable meetings and training sessions where experts will raise topical subject for making agriculture more attractive.
Academician Ion Tighineanu, acting president of the Academy of Sciences, was nominated for the post of president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. The candidate was agreed by the General Assembly of the Academy’s Social, Economic, Humanistic Sciences and Arts Section by a majority of votes on March 12. Earlier, another two General Assemblies of the Academy’s Life Sciences Section and the Exact and Engineering Sciences Section also approved the candidate by a majority of votes.
A number of filling stations in Chisinau posted lower fuel prices. Gasoline coded 92 costs 18.27 lei a liter, while that coded 95 – 18.37 lei. Diesel fuel costs about 16.60 lei a liter, while liquefied petroleum gas – approximately 10.70 lei.
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