Liberals say civil society should explain why they want early elections

The Liberal Party considers the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections should explain why civil society wants early legislative elections, MP Victor Popa said when asked to pronounce on the Coalition’s position that a referendum should be held, but, regardless of its result, it can have legal value only for a new composition of Parliament. “They should provide explanations and arguments why they want early elections. They pursue certain goals if they want these elections,” said Victor Popa. According to the Liberal lawmaker, it is now impossible to dissolve Parliament as there is no legal support. “The Constitution clearly says that the legislative body is dissolved only when the head of state cannot be elected. For the legislature to be dissolved, there should be first held presidential elections – the first round, the second round, rerun elections,” said the MP. “The Constitutional Court prevented Parliament from rerunning the elections. Consequently, the presidential elections will take place in May, after the referendum, when the impediment hindering the election of the head of state is removed.” As to the statement of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections that the rules of the game cannot be changed during the game, Victor Popa said that when the rules are bad, they should be changed for the game to take place. “We had elections in April 2009 and July 2009, referendum in September 2010, early elections in November 2010. We already spent over 200 million lei. A referendum must be held in order to lay down clear rules of the game, i.e. the election of the head of state, so that Moldova is able to unlock the political crisis,” said the lawmaker. The referendum is to take place in April at the latest. The Liberal Party suggested it should be held on April 29, after the Easter holidays. The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections consists of over 60 civil society organizations. It called on the ruling alliance to resume the process of electing the head of state within a month of the validation of the referendum outcome, but based on the current Article 78 of the Constitution, which says the head of state is elected by 61 votes.