PSD against new referendum validation norms

The Social Democratic Party considers the constitutional referendum to amend the procedure for electing the head of stat is a possibility for the Alliance for European Integration to spend public money and keep power. The Social-Democrats say the voter turnout of 17% required for validating the referendum is not a representative figure, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The major goal of the government coalition is not to allow the PCRM to come again to power. In this struggle, the Alliance often takes incorrect and non-democratic decisions. The PSD is concerned about such a situation,” the party's chairman Victor Selin said in a news conference on July 13. “Mihai Ghimpu and his allies from the coalition commenced an illegal process of delaying the dissolution of Parliament and of looking for possibilities to maintain power. The lowered threshold of 17% for the referendum does not represent the will of the people,” said the PSD secretary general Sergiu Corobceanu. Ana Harlamenko, the head of the National Assembly of Gagauzia, who is a member of the PSD, considers the holding of the referendum in the proposed form can result in the amendment of not only Article 78 of the Constitution, but also of other articles and the population of Gagauzia might be affected by this. She said the situation in the Autonomous Territorial Unit could be destabilized. Next week, the PSD will launch a campaign themed “Independent Moldova” to inform the people about the dangers that would arise if the new referendum validation norms are accepted. The amended Election Code says for the constitutional referendum to be validated, the voter turnout should be 1/3. Earlier, the threshold was 3/5.