Corneliu Gurin has been elected Moldova’s prosecutor general with the votes of 51 lawmakers today, April 18. He was proposed for this post by the Head of Parliament Marian Lupu the same day. The Communist MPs, the lawmakers of the Liberal Party and the group of Dodon didn’t support him, IPN reports.
Liberal MP Valeriu Munteanu said the faction that supports Mihai Ghimpu will not vote for Corneliu Gurin. The Liberals from the Council for Reforming the PL also didn’t support him. They argued that they asked for a pause to discuss with Gurin before the voting, but were refused to.
Communist lawmaker Galina Balmos said the special commission for selecting the candidate for the prosecutor general was a deception and it is a shame that the chairman of this commission was suggested for prosecutor general.
In his speech, Corneliu Gurin said he will not allow political influence to be exerted on the Prosecutor General’s Office. He stressed that he regrets no activity that he carried out until now and that he acted in accordance with the national interest. He wasn’t a party member, except for the last year, during which he formed part of the Democratic Action Party.
Corneliu Gurin, 37, is an expert in parliamentary and constitutional law and has a Bachelor’s degree in law sciences from “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania. In 1995-2005, he had held different public posts and has the supreme public service qualification degree – state adviser of Moldova, first class. Since 2005, he has worked as an independent expert and cooperated with a number of nongovernmental organizations and international institutions, national and foreign media outlets. He wrote and published books, studies and researches in constitutional and electoral law, human rights, European integration and cooperation, public administration, and justice. He is one of the authors of the Election Code and the Law on Legislative Acts.
The candidate for prosecutor general is put forward by the Head of Parliament. By the Speaker’s order, a commission was earlier constituted to select a candidate for this post. The commission, which was headed by Coneliu Gurin, designated Vitalie Parlog, who was minister of justice under the Communists. Marian Lupu announced today that he decided not to field Vitalie Parlog as he wouldn’t have garnered the necessary number of votes.