The Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” (PPPDA) formulated a series of proposals that are aimed at improving the current electoral system so as to ensure better representation of the people in Parliament by introducing preferential voting. Thus, the local elected officials will enter Parliament based on the vote for a party and on the preferred candidate from the list. If the government refuses to introduce the proportional preferential system, this will be promoted by the PPPDA in the next elections after reaching a broad national consensus and as a result of an appropriate appraisal from the Venice Commission, the party’s head Andrei Nastase said in a news conference, IPN reports.
Andrei Nastase noted that the final order of elected MPs on the list will depend strictly on the choice of the voters and the number of votes given to each candidate, regardless of the initial list registered with the Central Election Commission. Thus, on the one hand, the role of political parties as players of political pluralism is not diminished. On the other hand, the connection between voters and MPs becomes really stronger.
Increasing the level of representation of women in the electoral process by raising the mandatory quota for women to at least 50% of parties’ lists for the parliamentary elections is another proposal. The party also suggests increasing the level of representation of the diaspora, young people and persons who represent the community at the regional level. In this connection, Andrei Nastase said the PPPDA will make sure that the persons from the country’s regions, who are respected and trusted in their communities, will represent about 60% of its electoral lists for the legislative elections, while the representatives of the diaspora 20%. The “Platform Dignity and Truth” will also make sure that the young people make up about 25% of the candidates on its lists.
According to Andrei Nastase, the Central Election Commission should be depoliticized and the absolute majority of its members (six) should be named from among NGOs specialized in electoral processes based on a transparent, public contest, while the other three members should be nominated by the parliamentary majority, the opposition and the President of the Republic of Moldova. The Commission’s activity during the last few years should be examined so as to clarify the suspicions existing in society as to the electoral fraud.
Among other objectives are the punishment of propaganda, including during the election campaign, opening of a sufficient number of polling places abroad and allocation of at least 10,000 ballots to each polling place.
