The current election threshold of 6% for political parties is the highest in Moldova’s history. The European average is now 4%, secretary of the Central Election Commission Andrei Volentir has told IPN. The setting of the optimal election threshold is the prerogative of the political class.

“The practice of setting the election threshold differs from state to state. The European average is currently 4%, but there are also deviations. In Turkey the threshold is 11%. There are states that do not have a threshold, such as the Netherlands,” said Andrei Volentir.

In the Netherlands, the seats are distributed according to the D'Hondt method. After all the votes have been tallied, successive quotients are calculated for each party. The total votes cast for each party in the electoral district are divided, first by 1, then by 2, then 3, right up to the total number of seats to be allocated for the district/constituency. The ‘distribution figure’ of each candidate is the votes for his party divided by his rank within his party. The candidates with highest distribution figures are elected.

“In our country, there are no election thresholds in the local elections. For example, in the municipality of Chisinau there are 51 seats in the Municipal Council. 51 is divided by 100 and 2% of the vote represent a seat. If this is extrapolated to Parliament, about 1% of the vote will represent a seat, if we do not have election threshold,” explained Andrei Volentir.

Israel, whose electoral system is similar to Moldova’s, set an election threshold of 1%. “The good point is that this ceiling enables all the contenders, even small political groups, to secure representation in Parliament. The negative point is that Parliament is excessively portioned and problems are faced when a parliamentary majority and the Government must be formed,” said Andrei Volentir.

An election threshold of 6% for parties hasn’t existed in Moldova earlier. The threshold is higher only for political blocs. International practice shows it’s not favorable to increase the election thresholds in an electoral year, but its decrease does not affect the electoral climate.

Parliamentary elections are to take place in Moldova at the end of this November. Recently, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vlad Filat said they will consider the necessity of modifying the election threshold within the Pro-European Coalition.