The referendum announced by President Maia Sandu is meant to bring electoral advantages to the head of state in the presidential election and the Party of Development and Consolidation of Moldova (PDCM) will not play the game of the government. The leader of PDCM Ion Chicu said that the moment is not opportune for organizing the referendum and even the development partners are skeptical about it, IPN reports.
The politician noted that the party he leads rejected the invitation to take part in the consultations initiated by President Maia Sandu because they consider that a referendum on the country’s European integration must be organized at the end of the accession negotiations.
“We do not participate in farces and we are not Maia Sandu’s pet elves. It’s clear to any discerning person that this referendum was invented to reap electoral benefits. At the time the referendum was announced, the Electoral Code didn’t allow holding the two exercises simultaneously. They changed the Electoral Code. Such a referendum must be held, but not at the stage when the accession negotiations haven’t yet started. Such a referendum must take place when the results of the negotiation process are clear to the people. It’s not the right period for this exercise,” Ion Chicu stated in the talk show “Political Studio” on Vocea Basarabiei station.
The chairman of PDCM said that the idea of organizing a referendum at the beginning of the accession negotiations is not supported by the foreign partners. He voiced hope that the judges of the Constitutional Court will not accept the initiative to hold this exercise concurrently with the presidential election.
“We will have another referendum after the accession negotiations are over. Then we will opt for such an electoral exercise and will persuade the people to vote. Now it is an exercise at which even the foreign partners look with suspicion. I hope that the Constitutional Court will respect both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution, which delimits the two electoral exercises,” noted Ion Chicu.
On January 30, MPs of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court, requesting to establish the constitutionality of the law allowing holding a national referendum simultaneously with the parliamentary or presidential elections. Previously, the Electoral Code provided that the national referendum cannot take place on the day of parliamentary, presidential and general local elections, nor 60 days before and 60 days after election day.
