The initiative group for annulling the mixed-member electoral system will be set up on December 17, representatives of the civil society organizations that launched the initiative a week ago informed. The initiative group will make the necessary approaches to collect the signatures that will enable to hold a national referendum, before the parliamentary elections of 2018, on the annulment of the law by which changes were made to the Election Code.
Stefan Gligor, programs director at the Center for Politics and Reforms, in a news conference at IPN, said that for the initiative group to be constituted, the assembly must involve at least 300 citizens eligible to vote, 100 of whom will later form part of the initiative group for collecting signatures. Lester, the required documents will be submitted to the Central Election Commission so that the initiative group is registered. If the CEC registers the group, this will have to collect at least 200,000 signatures during two-three months.
Stefan Gligor said it will be not a constitutional, but a legislative referendum. After the signatures are collected and verified, Parliament will have two options: to announce the holding of the national referendum on the annulment of the law by which the Election Code was modified and to earmark the necessary funds or to abrogate the law on its own initiative, within six months. “This referendum is an appropriate instrument for making the politicians obey the law. We cannot allow those who have a lot of money and influence to have control over the people. We must be able, once in four years, to change the government if we don’t like it, while this mixed system enables the politicians who betrayed us to remain in power,” stated Stefan Gligor.
“WatchDog” expert Valeriu Pasa said the statements that the referendum can’t take place one year before the elections are tedious. “The PDM makes reference to the good practices of the Venice Commission that they themselves ignored. We speak not about the modification of the electoral system, but about the annulment of abusive changes,” stated the expert.
Political analyst Alexei Tulbure said the referendum is the only legal step by which the citizens can oppose the attempts to deprive Moldova of the right to choose the government. The proportional representation system is not perfect, but it enables to change the governments and does not allow the perpetuation of one and the same power. “By this law (by which the mixed system was introduced, e.n.), the state is captured. We are deprived of the right to choose once in four years. The PDM says it is juridical nonsense. They want us to stop doing something so that they could govern further,” noted Alexei Tulbure.
“The referendum is a civic activity by which we want to restore the democratic instruments in the Republic of Moldova. The current Parliament does not represent us. We call on the citizens to show civic activism, to become involved and struggle for our rights,” said Lilia Carasciuc, Transparency International Moldova president.
On November 21, a number of civil society organizations proposed initiating and holding a national referendum, before the parliamentary elections of 2018, on the annulment of the law by which changes were made to the Election Code and the mixed-member electoral system was introduced. The initiators of the referendum call upon the citizens, public organizations and political parties to become involved in the formation of the initiative group.
