The Central Election Commission (CEC) on January 12 rejected the application to register the initiative group for holding the national legislative referendum on the abrogation of the law by which changes were made to the Election Code and the mixed electoral system was introduced, IPN reports.

According to the CEC president Alina Russu, the Commission identified irregularities and violations of the Election Code as the proceedings of the assembly to constitute the initiative group contained contradictory data. Non-concordances were identified when counting the votes of participants. Also, the truthfulness of the figures included in the proceedings is doubted.

Chairman of the initiative group Stefan Gligor said that by its decision the CEC annihilated the citizens’ right to hold legislative referendums, violated the constitutional right of the people of the Republic of Moldova and acted as a politically engaged institution that serves the current government.

The initiative group for organizing the referendum on the abrogation of the mixed electoral system was constituted in a general assembly that involved almost 700 citizens with the right to vote on December 17, 2017.

The CEC’s decision will be debated in the January 15 meeting of the coordinators of the initiative group where the next steps will be decided.