The initiative group for holding a constitution al referendum announced that it disputed in the Chisinau Appeals Court the March 30 decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to reject the group’s proposal for the reason that the collected signatures do not meet the validity conditions. The group members consider the CEC’s decision is illegal and to the people’s detriment as the Commission fraudulently interpreted the Constitution.
In a news conference at IPN, the leader of the initiative group Andrei Nastase said they filed an application by which they demand that the March 30 decision of the CEC should be annulled and that the Commission should be obliged to adopt a decision on the initiation of the constitutional referendum. The application was lodged with the Appeals Court because namely this court has the duty to examine such applications. The CEC violated a number of constitutional provisions when it adopted the given decision. However, they are not very optimistic about the outcome given that all the rule of law institutions in Moldova have been captured.
In another development, Andrei Nastase called on all the MPs and the institutions that can go to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Parliament decision by which the presidential elections were set for October 30. The given decision was actually taken not by the MPs, but by the first deputy chairman of the Democratic Party Vladimir Plahotniuc, who this way tries to ‘save’ himself. “He understands that if the anticorruption pro-reform forces come to power, he will be jailed. He delayed the elections until October 30 so as to gain time by using the Moldovan people,” he stated.
One of the members of the initiative group Chiril Motpan said that it is now absurd to discuss the human rights in Moldova because these are flagrantly violated. “Four judges of the Constitutional Court decide the fate of the presidential elections as they want, while another four or five members of such a body as the CEC decide the fate of 400,000 people and actually deny their right to state their opinion in a referendum,” he stated, adding that the people in a number of communities are staging protests against the CEC decision and the rulers’ disrespect for them.
The initiative group for holding a constitution al referendum calls upon all the people to come to the Great National Assembly Square of Chisinau on April 24 to express their dissatisfaction with the decision of the Central Election Commission.
