Opposition MPs - deputy chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Vadim Pistrinciuc and Socialist Vlad Batrancea – criticized the Central Election Commission’s decision to reject the initiative of the Platform “Dignity and Truth” to hold a constitutional referendum. For his part, the Commission’s president Iurie Ciocan accused the MPs of promoting their politics based on the people’s misfortune. The statements were made in the program “In Depth” on Pro TV Chisinau, IPN reports.

Vadim Pistrinciuc said the Commission should have avoided rejecting the referendum. “This is a sensitive subject. It is about the people’s wil. Given the number of collected signatures, this issue should have been resolved in Parliament. Over 400,000 signatures were collected. The CEC should have at least examined a part of these,” he stated.

The Liberal-Democratic heavyweight also said that the initiative of the Platform “Dignity and Truth” was a test that the CEC failed. “Iurie Ciocan, when being questioned in Parliament, didn’t present plausible arguments. What the CEC did shows that this there is dictatorship in our country,” he stated.

Within a telephone call during the program, Iurie Ciocan replied that each signature was verified. “After we examined the file, we decided to pronounce on the quantitative aspect as the constitutional norms weren’t met. We understand these over 400,000 people, but we must obey the law as we swore with the hand on the Constitution. The lawmakers have to only amend the legislation. The politicians, both those of the right and those of the left, promote their politics based on the misfortune of the 400,000 people,” he stated.

On March 30, the CEC rejected the proposal of the initiative group set up by the Platform “Dignity and Truth” to hold a constitutional referendum by a majority of votes. The Commission’s president Iurie Ciocan argued that the signatures collected by the group members do not meet the validity conditions..