Introduced as an additional item in the agenda of the August 23 meeting of the Cabinet, the regulations concerning the activity of the commission that will set up single-member constituencies was approved, IPN reports.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip said a lot of work was done on this document.

Under the regulations, the Commission will formulate the guidelines for creating single-member constituencies. The regulations define the rights and obligations of the Commission members, the powers of the Commission’s chairperson, the way of holding meetings and of adopting decisions.

The Commission, whose composition is to be approved by the Government 14 months before the expiration of the Parliament’s mandate, will mandatorily include representatives of the Central Election Commission, the Parliament’s legal commission for appointments and immunities, the presidential office, the parliamentary groups and factions, extraparliamentary parties or blocs of such parties that won over 2% of the vote in the last parliamentary elections, the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, associations of national minorities that represent more than 1% of Moldova’s population, local public authorities, civil society and others. Representatives of other bodies can be delegated to work on the Commission without the right to vote.

According to the recent changes made to the Election Code, there will be set up 51 single-member constituencies. The regulations specify the rules of forming the constituencies abroad and in the Transnistrian region. The list of single-member constituencies will be published in the Official Gazette.

The draft regulations that were earlier published for public debates attracted criticism from NGOs. These said it is within the competence of the given Commission to work out the regulations and the way in which the document was drafted represents direct interference in the work of this body and intention to undermine its independence.