The Parliament’s legal commission for appointments and immunities will carry out an extensive analysis of the legal framework based on which the Chisinau early mayoral elections were invalidated. The electoral legislation, including the preconditions and juridical motivation of the invalidation, will be assessed in accordance with the international standards. This is provided in a draft decision that was adopted by the legislature on July 12. The opposition MPs criticized the bill, saying this is a method of pulling the wool over the eyes of the citizens and the development partners, IPN reports.
The decision was drafted by MPs Andrian Candu, Marian Lupu, Vladimir Vitiuc, Valeriu Giletski, Gheorghe Mocanu, Eugen Carpov, Violeta Ivanov and Raisa Apolschii.
The MP of the European People’s Parliamentary Group Valeriu Giletski said the decision is aimed at avoiding the risk of erroneous interpretations of the electoral legislation in the future and at guaranteeing the stating of the people’s free will by defending the democratic principles and electoral law norms.
Under the decision, the legal commission can involve specialists of the Parliament’s secretariat, the Central Election Commission, representatives of the local and central public authorities as well as independent experts of civil society and foreign experts. Within 60 days the commission is to present conclusions and proposals for improving the legislation so as to ensure the integrity of the electoral process and strengthen the electoral rights of the Moldovan citizens.
While examining the draft decision, Liberal-Democratic MP Maria Ciobanu said this decision is hypocritical as the legislation is correct but is applied selectively and the courts should be freed from captivity and political subordination, while the judges who invalidated the elections should be held accountable.
Liberal MP Lilian Carp noted the Election Code clearly stipulates when the elections can be invalidated and that the elections should be rerun in such a case so as to complete the electoral process. The invalidation decision was passed, but the court didn’t punish the electoral competitor who committed violations and this was done intentionally so that the person could not go to the ECHR.
Communist MP Oleg Reidman said this decision is an attempt to unblock the relations with their EU and many of the things based on which the election invalidation decision was taken are the result of the amendment of the electoral legislation. Now the challenges are examined by court, not by the Central Election Commission as earlier as the courts can be influenced easier.
Socialist MP Vlad Batrancea noted not the legislation is to blame, but the court that passed a non-proportional decision under political pressure. The blame is put on the legislation, not on judges because the EU will no longer provide money for the justice sector reform otherwise.
Speaker Andrian Candu asked what the Socialists expected to happen when they went to court and complained about violations in the electoral process. According to him, the electoral legislation says no campaigning is allowed on the election day as this means influencing of voters. The court just applied the law.
On June 19, the Chisinau City Court decided to not validate the early mayoral elections held in Chisinau. The court argued both Andrei Nastase and Ion Ceban campaigned on the election day, which is inadmissible according to the Election Code. Both of the candidates, through the agency of social media, called on the electorate to vote. Even if these didn’t say who namely the people should vote for, the court decided that these actions had a significant impact on the voters’ option. The Chisinau Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the invalidation decision. Supporters of Andrei Nastase mounted a series of protests.
