AEI colleagues skeptical about PLDM initiative to shorten election campaign

The parties of the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) are skeptical about the Liberal Democratic Party’s initiative to curtail the election campaign from 60 to 30 days, Info-Prim Neo reports. ”The Central Election Commission must mobilize. I don’t know if 30 days is enough. I consider that 45 days are sufficient, but this runs counter to a number of legislative provisions. That’s why we must discuss this initiative,” said the president of honor of the Democratic Party Dumitru Diacov. Liberal MP Valeriu Munteanu said Moldova cannot afford this as the largest part of Moldova’s population is not well informed. “I think a longer period of time is needed for the parties to be able to make field trips and meet the voters. This initiative will disadvantage first all the small, extraparliamentary parties. It should be discussed within the parties and then within the Alliance,” Munteanu added. Vasile Balan, the leader of the parliamentary group of the AMN, said the election campaign can be shortened, but this should result in other amendments to the Election Code so that the term for creating and running election commissions and district electoral councils is changed. “The initiative should be toughly analyzed by the AEI,” he said. Asked to state his opinion, the secretary of the Central Committee of the PCRM Iurie Muntean said Prime Minister Vlad Filat is the only one in the ruling alliance who wants these elections as he is afraid that the Cabinet he heads will not survive another winter. The PLDM registered an amendment proposal for the Election Code with the Parliament’s Standing Bureau, suggesting that the election campaign be shortened from 60 to 30 days.