The president of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Iurie Ciocan said they obeyed the law when they rejected the initiative to hold a constitutional referendum following the collection of over 400,000 signatures in favor of this. On April 1, he said in Parliament he realizes that 400,000 is a huge figure, but he acted in strict compliance with the law and this figure cannot make him break the law. Iurie Ciocan told the MPs that he prefers to resign than to violate the legislation of the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.

The CEC president was invited to Parliament to provide explanations over the Commission’s decision to reject the over 400,000 signatures collected by the initiative group for holding a constitutional referendum on the election and dismissal of the Head of State, reduction in the number of MPs and limitation of their immunity.

In his speech, Iurie Ciocan said the initiative group registered 775 persons who wanted to collect signatures. During ten days, the CEC staged training seminars for these persons to teach them how to collect signatures. He personally warned the initiative group leaders not to disperse their forces to all the country’s districts and mobilize to collect the necessary minimum from at least half of the districts.

According to him, the initiative group chose to travel through all the districts and thus didn’t manage to collect by minimum 20,000 signatures from at least half of the territorial-administrative units of the Republic of Moldova. In some of the districts, they managed to collect more than necessary, but in others collected much fewer. For example, in Basarabeasca district there were collected about 1,800 signatures. Enough signatures were collected only in three territorial-administrative units.

Being criticized that he ignored the people’s wish and the signatures of over 400,000 people, Iurie Ciocan replied that it was Parliament that should have amended the Constitution’s provisions regulating the signature collection procedure.

The Great National Assembly Council that created the initiative group for holding a constitutional referendum expressed its indignation at the CEC’s decision and announced that it will challenge this decision in court. A large-scale protest is being prepared.