Less than 40 referenda were initiated during Moldova’s independence

36 local and national referenda were initiated during Moldova’s 21 years of independence. In the 90s, there were 12 plebiscites, including two national consultative and 10 local. The latter referred mostly to the sacking of mayors. The information was offered to Info-Prim Neo by the secretary of the Central Electoral Committee (CEC) Andrei Volentir. [Only 3 of the 6 initiated national referenda were actually organized] According to the CEC secretary, only 6 national referenda were organized during the 21 years of independence. “In 1994, President Mircea Snegur initiated a national consultative referendum regarding the independence and sovereignty of Moldova. In 1999, President Petru Lucinschi ran another referendum regarding the enlargement of the competences of the head of the state”, communicated Andrei Volentir. Both plebiscites had no end results, as they were only consultative and served as tools of internal policy. “The first was organized to put an end to talks regarding the country’s future- whether it would unite with another state or entity”, explained Andrei Volentir. The second one served as the basis for a draft law proposed by President Lucinschi regarding the amendment of several articles in the Constitution in order to increase the powers of the head of the state. “However, the Parliament didn’t examine this draft law; it examined another one, which led to the amendment of the Constitution, so that the President would be elected indirectly”, said the CEC secretary. [During the Communist period, there were 4 referendum initiatives, all of which failed] Between 2001 and 2009, when the Communists’ Party (PCRM) was in power, there were 4 proposals. “In 2002, Dumitru Braghis wanted to change the electoral system so that part of the MPs would be elected by uninominal precincts and the other part on party lists. He collected all the necessary signatures, but the Parliament rejected it”, said Andrei Volentir. The same year, another referendum was proposed regarding the option to join NATO and the EU, but CEC refused to register the initiative group for the organization of the referendum. In 2004, a referendum was initiated to join the single economic space of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. Once again, CEC refused to register the initiative group. “In 2008, Vlad Filat proposed another national referendum to amend the Constitution”, informed Andrei Volentir. The initiative failed because an article in the Constitution left room for interpretation regarding the number of signatures needed for the amendment of the Supreme Law. It says that such an initiative needs the signatures of at least 200,000 people and they must be from at least half of the second level administrative-territorial units, from which at least 20,000 signatures must be collected. The rule had been established when Moldova was divided in counties and 20,000 signatures in half of them meant 200,000. After the reform and the change to districts, 20,000 signatures from half of the districts would mean 340,000. The initiative group collected over 200,000 signatures, but less than 340,000 and didn’t even submit them to CEC. In 2010, a Constitutional referendum was organized regarding the amendment of the Constitution for the election of the President through direct vote, but the voter turnout wasn’t sufficient and the result was declared null. The plebiscite was boycotted by the leftist forces, especially by PCRM who urged the people not to vote. The last initiative for a national referendum came from a group that wanted Moldova to join the Customs Union Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan. Recently, the initiative group presented 200,000 signatures at CEC, but more than half were declared fake and the referendum wasn’t initiated. [Poor years and rich years, aka the referendum as a tool for threatening?] CEC secretary Andrei Voluntir said that in 1998 UTA Gagauzia initiated a referendum for the adoption of Gagauzia’s Regulation. The decisions of CEC and of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia “Regarding the organization of the local referendum in UTA Gagauzia (Gagauz Yeri)” were annulled by the Supreme Justice Court for violating the legal norms. Also in 1998, two local referenda were initiated to sack the mayors of Taul village in Donduseni district and Navarnet village in Falesti district. Besides, the Burlaceni commune in Vulcanesti district and Basarabeasca town initiated referenda to join UTA Gagauzia. CEC rejected the latter initiatives, arguing that they violated the law. In 1999, Taraclia district initiated a local referendum to keep the name of district after the administrative territorial reforms into counties. CEC ruled again that this was against the law. In 2000, eleven localities wanted referenda to remove their mayors. Nine of the plebiscites were actually organized and the mayors were sacked in five cases. Next year, seven mayors were on the verge of being sacked through referendum. Only two were organized and both were successful, while the others were rejected by CEC for various reasons. 2002 saw 3 referenda initiated, two local and one national. The former concerned the sacking of mayors, but weren’t approved by CEC. The idea of the national referendum belonged to Dumitru Braghis, who wanted to change the Electoral Code, but wasn’t backed by the Parliament. In 2004, two local referenda were initiated for the sacking of the mayors of Mincenii de Jos commune in Rezina district and Tvardita village in Taraclia district. In the first case, the mayor was removed from office. In the second case, the initiative group took no actions after it was registered. A local referendum for the sacking of the mayor of Filipeni village in Leova district was organized in 2006, but was annulled as the turnout was only 31%. In 2008, a national referendum was proposed regarding the amendment of the Constitution, but the necessary 340,000 signatures weren’t collected. In 2010, the national referendum regarding the election of the President was organized, but wasn’t validated because of the insufficient turnout. In 2012, various people declared they wished referenda on issues like the amendment of the Constitution, the enlargement of a locality’s autonomy, the sacking of the mayor of Chisinau and other localities. Some political commentators stated that the notion of “referendum” artificially gained a pejorative connotation and was used as a tool for political threatening. [Mariana Galben, Info-Prim Neo]