Constitutional Court to examine Parliament's application about caretaker president

The Constitutional Court Thursday will pass its judgment on the application whereby the eighteenth legislature asks it to pronounce on the legality of Speaker Mihai Ghimpu holding the post of head of state on an interim basis, the Court's spokesman Dumitru Tara has told Info-Prim Neo. The Communists Party (PCRM) also submitted an application over this issue to the Court. The Communist MPs asked the Court to interpret three articles from the Constitution of Moldova and decide when the caretaker president should take office – when the Parliament makes such a decision or after the Constitutional Court determines the circumstances in which the caretaker president takes over. Maia Banarescu, the head of the Constitutional Court's apparatus, said that the two applications will be examined separately. “The next days, the judges will decide whether to accept or reject the PCRM's application,” Maia Banarescu said. The Head of Parliament Mihai Ghimpu was names as caretaker president under a Parliament decision after the post was declared vacant. After holding office as head of state for two consecutive terms, Vladimir Voronin tendered his resignation on September 11, announcing that he would take the seat of MP.