Liberal Paty asks postponing setting of presidential election date

The Liberal lawmakers left the Parliament’s sitting after exchanging replies with the Liberal-Democratic and Democratic MPs over the presidential elections. They asked postponing the procedure for fixing the date of the presidential elections, while the other colleagues from the ruling alliance insisted that the date should be set in the February 24 sitting. In last week’s sitting, the Liberal MPs did the same, Info-Prim Neo reports. Mihai Ghimpu said the other two factions of the AEI exert pressure, profit from the fact that the Communists do not attend the plenary sittings and want to fix the date of the elections by a majority of the votes of those attending. “I said we will not vote for the date if the presidential candidate is not agreed. I propose postponing fixing the date. If the President is elected by one or two days later it won’t be a problem. We must elect a good President,” he stated in the sitting. The Liberal leader asked the MPs to take account of the agreement signed by the AEI, which says that if an item of the agenda is not accepted by all the factions of the alliance, the examination of the issue is put off. “The statements that pressure has been exerted during the last few weeks are irrelevant. The subject of the presidential elections went beyond all limits. We agreed to identify a candidate,” said the head of the Liberal-Democratic parliamentary group Valeriu Strelet. “The PLDM considers we have all the preconditions needed to set the date of the elections. The candidate was fielded and there are no reasons for delaying the elections. The Liberals should not forget that they promised: “Choose a candidate and we will vote”. Today we must take a common decision,” he stated. The leader of the Democratic faction Dumitru Diacov said the date of the presidential elections must be fixed today as things should not longer be postponed. “This will be a lesson for you,” said Mihai Ghimpu when the Liberal MPs were leaving the assembly hall. As the quorum was not present, the sitting was closed. The Liberal-Democratic leader Vlad Filat said earlier today that they initially proposed Ion Ababii for President, but the Liberals rejected him. The PLDM and PDM thus fielded Veronica Bacalu, saying they do not intend to examine other candidates.