Chisinau Appellate Court: president, speaker, premier cannot be obliged to suspend themselves from jobs
The Chisinau Appellate Court Tuesday rejected the complaint of Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN), which asked the court to oblige the Central Election Commission (CEC) to ask president Vladimir Voronin, speaker Marian Lupu and premier Zinaida Greceanai to leave aside their duties during the campaign, Info-Prim Neo reports.
The AMN has informed that those three officials running for the Parliament on the Communists (PCRM)' list are using governmental cars and the tax-payers' money, and thus violate the legislation during the election race. The AMN lawyers in the court, Nicolae Raileanu and Alexandru Spac, consider that the president, the speaker and the prime-minister are top civil servants, which should suspend their being in office, if they candidate.
CEC representative Pavel Midrigan has told the court that the CEC does not have the power to oblige any candidate to get suspended from his/her job. Midrigan thinks article 13 of the Election Code expressly envisages the officials, who must suspend their being in office, and those three dignitaries are not in that list.
The Chisinau Appellate Court rejected the AMN's request as groundless. The party says it will sue the decision in the Supreme Court of Justice.