Minister Alexandru Tanase lodges another challenge with Constitutional Court

Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase submitted a new challenge to the Constitutional Court, asking it to review its decision concerning the law on dual nationality, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the Ministry of Justice. The minister refers to the decision of May 26, 2009, which bans the persons with dual nationality from holding seats of MP. Alexandru Tanase notifies the Constitutional Court of the April 27, 2010 decision passed by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Tanase v. Moldova. After the public hearings held on September 16, 2009, the Grand Chamber on March 10, 2010 upheld the Court's November 18, 2008 decision by a unanimous vote. It held that the Government of Moldova violated the right to free elections by adopting a law that does not allow the persons with dual nationality to sit as MPs. On May 26, 2009, the Constitutional Court of Moldova passed a decision, declaring the Law 273 as constitutional. It argued that the law is designed to defend the national security and strengthen Moldova's statehood. The European Court ruled that besides making reference to alleged attempts to undermine the statehood of Moldova, the Constitutional Court did not provide explanations as regards the necessity of modifying the electoral policy. The ECHR says the Law 273 and other electoral reform measures had a negative impact on the Opposition as all the MPs who were affected by this law were from the Opposition. “The Government could not give an example when MPs holding dual nationality showed disloyalty to the Republic of Moldova,” the Court said.