Party switching that is witnessed even in the most stable democracies can become dangerous when it implies elements of political corruption or when it reaches proportions that can considerably distort political representation and, consequently, threaten institutional stability, said experts of Promo-LEX Association.
In the current legislature, compared with the previous three legislatures, party switching for now does not seem to be a defining characteristic. To date, three MPs of the Party of Socialists left the Bloc of Communists and Socialists and the PSRM to sit as independent MPs. Gaik Vartanean joined the National Alternative Movement of his former party mate Ion Ceban, incumbent mayor of Chisinau. Alexandr Nesterovschi and Irina Lozovan, with the letter having been a member of the political executive committee of the PSRM, chose to join another extraparliamentary party - the Movement for People that includes the Shor Party, which has the smallest parliamentary group in the current legislature.
The experts of Promo-LEX made a comparison with other legislative bodies. For example, in the tenth Legislature (2019-2021), 21 MPs migrated to other parties or became unaffiliated, in the ninth Legislature (2014-2018), there were 72 migrations involving 40 MPs, while in the eighth Legislature (2010-2014) - 24 migrations involving 23 MPs.
“Analyzing party switching in the Republic of Moldova, we see that political migration of MPs is often associated with opportunism and political corruption rather than with other circumstances, such as ideological ones (disagreement with the party line or its leader) or exclusion from the group as a disciplinary measure. Respectively, we consider it is the moral duty of the MPs who exchange a group in Parliament for another to provide comprehensive explanations and arguments, while the law enforcement bodies should efficiently examine any suspicion of political corruption of MPs so that the citizens’ confidence in the representativeness of Parliament is restored,” the Association noted in a press release.
As to the imperative mandate proposed earlier, the experts said that acceptance of this does not represent a solution by far as it limits considerably the legislative duty. It is incompatible with democracy, reduces to zero the independence of MPs and their freedom in exercising their mandate and mission to be in the service of the people, not to represent private interests.
Promo-LEX noted that if the number of MPs who leave the parliamentary group increases significantly, Parliament should consider the possibility of taking additional measures to discourage party switching, like, stripping of allowances and prevention from taking part in parliamentary commissions or international delegations.
