AEI’s goal is to choose Marian Lupu as President, opinion leaders

The aim of the ruling alliance is to elect Marian Lupu as head of state, in accordance with the alliance constitution agreement. That’s why they want to amend the Constitution. Such an opinion was expressed by opinion leaders from Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on Friday, Arcadie Barbarosie, executive director of the Public Policy Institute, said it is risky to interrupt the process of electing the head of state and organize a referendum to modify the Constitution and this does not guarantee that the political crisis will be resolved. If the population votes against, the lawmakers will be never able to change the constitutional article concerning the election of the President, not even in Parliament. Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy, considers that the AEI decided to hold the referendum in an unsuitable period. “In April the rulers will be put many questions as to what happened on April 7, 2009. The ruling alliance does not have answers and will probably never have them. Thus, this will put them in an unfavorable light and will affect the referendum outcome,” he stated in the same news conference. Politologist Alexandru Solcan said that it is not right for the MPs to reduce the number of votes needed to elect the President. “The 61 votes allowed us to bring about changes in Moldova. If they hadn’t existed in April 2009, the political situation would have been different now,” he stated. The members of civil society signed a memorandum whereby the demand that the AEI resume the process of electing the head of state and return to the idea of amending the Constitution in Parliament. The signatories proposed holding a public roundtable meeting involving politicians and civil society representatives to identify candidates for the presidency. The process must be transparent and should include public debates between the presidential candidates, while the lawmakers should stop boycotting the presidential elections. The memorandum was signed by Arcadie Barbarosie, Igor Botan, Viorel Cibotaru, Oazu Nantoi, Eugen Revenko, Vitalii Andrievschi, and Alexandru Solcan.