The political camps are campaigning on the referendum although, according to the law, it should start 30 days before the day of the plebiscite, said the former chairman of the Central Election Commission, Iurie Ciocan. According to him, both the ruling party and the opposition parties, which call on the voters to boycott the referendum, are campaigning. Iurie Ciocan is convinced that the referendum will reach the validation threshold of 1/3, as the merging of the two electoral exercises will contribute to the increase of the participation rate, IPN reports.
The former CEC chairman noted that both the information campaign “For the Referendum” started by the PAS and the opposition’s messages regarding the boycotting of the plebiscite are pure elements of an electoral campaign. The messages of the political camps run counter to the provisions of the electoral legislation, according to which the election campaign begins 30 days before the date of the referendum.
“We see the Party of Action and Solidarity with a broad campaign at the local level regarding the organization of this referendum. It is a pure pre-campaign. Newspapers, leaflets “for the referendum” are distributed. Nowhere have I seen the message “against referendum” or simply “we invite you to the referendum”. The information campaign implies full informing. That’s it goes to the date of the referendum, the voting options: for and against. This would be an information campaign. Today, some come with newspapers and billboards for the referendum, others come with messages regarding the boycotting of the referendum. So, we are in the middle of a political struggle. The campaign in its pure form is evident from all sides. Those who promote messages against this referendum are also campaigning. We are in the middle of an electoral campaign on the referendum issue,” Iurie Ciocan stated in the talk show “Resumé” on RliveTV.
Under the law, for the referendum to be validated, at least 1/3 of the number of voters put on the electoral registers must participate. Iurie Ciocan said that there is no risk that this validation threshold will not be reached.
“The holding of this referendum simultaneously with the presidential election will contribute to increasing the participation rate. And that’s because the presidential election is still the most frequented elections. I have no doubt that this number will not be reached, even if a certain number of parties will urge their followers not to take the ballot for the referendum. Before Parliament set the day of this referendum, I said that this referendum is not necessary. Because, anyway, at the end of the accession negotiations, we will have to hold another referendum. Now this referendum is taking place for the sake of confirming our will. But our will has been confirmed since 2009 until today in every election, every time we had pro-European parliamentary majorities. In addition, polls show that the majority of citizens in the Republic of Moldova are pro-European,” said the former chairman of the Central Election Commission.
The national constitutional referendum will take place on October 20, concurrently with the presidential election. The question at the referendum is: “Are you for amending the Constitution for stipulating the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union in it?”.
