“Not long before the Victory Day, we won an important victory: the uninominal voting system promoted by the Democratic Party so insistently during the last several months failed,” President Igor Dodon said, commenting on the Parliament’s decision to merge the bills on the uninominal voting system and the mixed-member electoral system, with the latter being taken as a basis, IPN reports.
In a press beefing in the evening of May 5, President Dodon said the Democratic MPs and their allies from the ruling alliance passed the bill on the uninominal voting system by 52 votes. However, at the insistence of the Socialists, the bill on the mixed-member electoral system was also put to the vote and this garnered more support, being adopted by the votes of 74 MPs. This shows that many MPs understood the importance of reaching a compromise in political processes of national importance.
Igor Dodon also said that under the legal procedures, in the second reading Parliament will examine not the uninominal voting system, but the mixed electoral system. The concept of the mixed-member electoral system will be presented to the Venice Commission and the Commission’s decision will make things clear.
“It will be then clear if we should introduce the mixed-member electoral system or should not do the electoral reform at all. In both of the cases, we will only gain as in both of the cases the uninominal voting system will fail. The uninominal system that was insistently promoted by the Democratic Party now has minimal chances of being passed. In practical terms, it means we today managed to remove it for good,” stated the President.
On May 5, the Democratic Party’s bill to amend the Election Code and replace the party-list proportional representation system with the uninominal voting system was adopted in the first reading. In the same sitting, the MPs passed the bill on the mixed-member electoral system that was registered by the Party of Socialists on the initiative of President Igor Dodon. It was later decided to merge the two bills, with the mixed-member electoral system being taken as a basis.
