Mihai Ghimpu: AEI has three solutions to elect president without Communist participation

The Alliance for European Integration (AEI) has three solutions to elect the president of the country without the participation of the Communist Party, stated Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu at a meeting with the press, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Liberal leader referred in particular to the amendment of the Law on the election of the head of state, specifying that the AEI had enough votes for that. According to Ghimpu, this would fill the legislative gaps created by Articles 78 and 90 of the Moldovan Constitution. Art.90 states that the the president shall be elected within two months from the date the post fell vacant, and Art.78 stipulates a three-fifths (61 votes) requirement for the election of the head of state and provides for the dissolution of Parliament in case of double failure. “Art.90 provides for the two months' period from the vacancy, but it doesn't say what is the course to follow three months or five years after that. At the same time, Art.78 – which provides for the 61 votes, the first and the second rounds, the repeat election – is directly connected to Art.90. These two articles are interconnected”, argued Ghimpu. So he suggests that the three-fifths requirement is only applicable to the case of the two months' period. “Now the situation is totally different”, because in this particular case the post fell vacant in September 2009, with the resignation of President Voronin. The Liberal leader says solutions exuding the Communists are needed as it seems unlikely that they will endorse the ruling alliance's candidate. Ghimpu suggests that the Communists are interested in snap elections, which they see as an opportunity to come back to power. Now the Communist Party insists that the government announces the date of the presidential vote as a precondition for negotiations. “You know what's their trick? They say 'Call the election now and we'll talk'. This means that they will force the election on us, then they won't vote, and this will naturally lead to snap (parliamentary) elections. Why should we play their game? So if they don't want to, we have a couple of solutions”. Ghimpu has argued that Communist leader Vladimir Voronin would never agree to endorse the AEI's candidate Marian Lupu, also because Ghimpu would replace Lupu as Speaker, “and Voronin wouldn't like this to happen... many wouldn't”. Mihai Ghimpu went on to add that the solution of the legislative amendment wasn't debated at the recent meeting of the AEI's joint Council. “I tried to introduce this issue earlier, before the meeting of the Council. But there was a small difference. I guess we need a group of lawyers to gather and examine this”. The Liberal leader avoided to reveal the two other options “up his sleeve”. But two weeks ago, Liberal vice president Dorin Chirtoaca suggested that the AEI's experts were examining the opportunity to amend the legislation concerning the second round of the presidential vote. “The Constitution does not expressly stipulate how the election of the president should take place in the second round of the vote. It also doesn't explicitly say how many votes are required for this. This leaves room for further legislation to elaborate on the procedure of the presidential vote, and this could be a solution, albeit on the edge”, said Chirtoaca. Communist leader Vladimir Voronin stated on Friday, February 18, that the Communist parliamentary faction would categorically not support the AEI's candidate for president. The statement was made at a meeting with US Ambassador Asif Chaudhry.