Liberals ask for extraordinary session of Parliament

The Liberal Party (PL) calls the Parliament's activity irresponsible and defective and claims the situation has been created by the coalition led by the Communists Party (PCRM). According to PL, the degradation of the legislative ruling is confirmed by the low level of the people's trust in the Parliament, mirrored in latest opinion polls and the rising number of protest actions in front of the Legislature's building. The party announced a statement concerning the activity of the Parliament at a news conference on Monday in Chisinau, occasioned by the closure of the spring-summer parliamentary session, Info-Prim Neo reports. The PL leader, Mihai Ghimpu, has stated that, although Moldova is a parliamentary republic by Constitution, its President, Vladimir Voronin, has usurped the power and holds the Parliament in full control. According to Mihai Ghimpu, the PCRM president, by power abuse, uses all the levers to stick to power, using Soviet controlling methods over the law-enforcement bodies and manipulating citizens. Thus, a severe violation of a constitutional right is taking place, and namely, the right of the citizen to information, what deprives him of the possibility to elect the Parliament free and conscientiously, the PL leader thinks. Corina Fusu, a PL councilor in the Chisinau Council (CMC), says the Parliament does not work to democratize society and in the interest of citizens hoping for the European integration, what has been remarked by a number of international bodies. They warn the Chisinau Legislature does not bring a series of laws into concordance with the European standards, including the law on prosecutor's office, the law on police, the law on SIS (espionage service), the legislation discriminating people having dual citizenship, the law on the local autonomy, the Electoral Code and Broadcasting Code. “PL condemns the parliamentary majority for actions running counter the principles of democracy and the human rights, what was especially noticed in approving of the changes to the Electoral Code regarding the ban of the electoral blocs, the increase of the electoral threshold (to enter parliament) to 6%, and forbidding the dual citizenship for public servants,” Corina Fusu said. According to her, PL also disapproves of the attitude and behavior of the Parliament towards the situation in Gagauzia's People's Assembly, the CMC and a number of district councils, where the Communists do not hold the local power. Since December 2006, when the law on the local public administration was passed, the Parliament has tergiversated to pass the Law on the status of the Chisinau municipality, she said. PL asks the Parliament to convene an extraordinary session urgently to exclude the ban to create electoral blocs, to decrease the electoral threshold, to annul the restrictions for functionaries with dual citizenship, to adjust the law on the judiciary, prosecutor's office, police, SIS to European standards. PL also wants higher pensions and salaries for budgetary employees, liberalized economy to attract foreign capital, to change the Broadcasting Code so as to oblige the public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova to organize debate programs and to offer weekly air time to political parties during the whole year, etc. According to the Parliament's regulation, it can meet for an extraordinary sitting, if asked so by its president, by the Country's President or by 1/3 of deputies.