The decision by the Central Election Commission (CEC) to reject the proposal of the initiative group created by the Platform “Dignity and Truth” to hold a constitutional referendum is erroneous and incorrect, considers constitutional expert Nicolae Osmochescu. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, this said that by the given decision, the spirit of the law was ignored, IPN reports.

Nicolae Osmochescu said that Article 141 of the Constitution invoked by the CEC provides that a referendum can be initiated after collecting 200,000 signatures of Moldovan citizens with the right to vote from at least half of the territorial-administrative units. When the given amendment was made in 2000 there were counties in Moldova. “The territorial administrative reform was done later and the counties were replaced by districts. Officially, there are 36 districts and municipalities,” he stated.

The expert also said that in accordance with Article 141, at least 200,000 signatures were to be collected from at least half of the territorial-administrative units. “In this case, the initiative group that dealt with the collection of signatures presented over 400,000 signatures in favor of the referendum, which is twice more. The CEC uses the figure of 360,000 based on the idea that half of the districts means 18, by 20,000 from each of them. Two different figures are thus used,” explained Nicolae Osmochescu.

He considers that more than 20,000 signatures could be collected in the set period not only from one third of the territorial-administrative units if the CEC and the local public authorities provided real assistance to the signature collecting team.

Also, Nicolae Osmochescu believes that it was the duty of the CEC to officially ask Parliament to interpret Article 141 so as to set a norm based on which to take a decision – the 200,000 signatures stipulated in the Constitution or the 360,000 determined by the CEC’s calculations. The CEC didn’t do this because the political interests prevail.