The legislative body will come together for a meeting to examine a bill by which the Election Code will be supplemented with criteria for individualizing the restrictions on running in elections for members of parties declared unconstitutional. More exactly, the Central Election Commission, based on information obtained from the law enforcement agencies, will compile the list of persons who cannot be registered as election contenders, Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu announced in a news conference on Wednesday morning after the Constitutional Court ruled that particular Election Code provisions were unconstitutional, IPN reports.

“It should be clear that the organized criminal groups are not compatible with democracy. The Constitutional Court said this earlier, when it declared the Short criminal group unconstitutional. The criminal groups affect national security and the free and fair elections. The Parliament’s duty is to make amendments to the Election Code in accordance with the Court’s judgments and the ECHR case law,” stated the official.

According to Igor Grosu, in practical terms the ban on running in the November 5, 2023 local elections will expressly refer to persons who cannot be registered as election contestants. It goes to persons who were classed as suspects or were accused or found guilty of committing offenses that were used as an argument by the CC when the party was declared unconstitutional.

“These persons include those who were excluded from the electoral race earlier, following the deliberate violation of the principle of legal financing, or were put on international sanctions lists – arguments that were mentioned in the Constitutional Court’s decision,” said the Speaker.

This way, the General Police Inspectorate, the National Anticorruption Center, the Security and Intelligence Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office will provide information about persons to whom these criteria apply. “The Central Election Commission, based on this information, will adopt the list of persons who cannot be registered as election contenders and will present it to the electoral bodies that will refuse to register the mentioned persons as election contenders or will annul the registration of the contender if this was already registered. These decisions by the electoral bodies can be challenged in the Chisinau Appeals Court during a day of the adoption of the decision,” stated the Speaker.

On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional Article 16, par. (2) letter e) of the Election Code. This provides that persons who were members of the executive body of a party or held elective posts on behalf of the party when the given party was declared unconstitutional by the CC cannot stand for elections within five years of the day the decision was pronounced.