The participants in the July 30 protest mounted in front of the Parliament Building demanded that the European Union should impose sanctions against those who voted to introduce the mixed-member electoral system despite the negative appraisals by international institutions, IPN reports.

The demand is contained in a resolution that was adopted at the end of the protest. The protesters requested to impose sanctions on travelling in the EU against the 74 MPs who adopted the law and on the leaders of the PDM, PSRM and PPEM until the given law is abrogated. These supported the initiative to stage a new protest on September 17 and expressed their readiness to take part in all the events that will be held in the near future against the change in the electoral system. The protesters also demanded to restore and improve the party-list proportional representation system that would ensure free elections and called on the EU and U.S. institutions to continue to support Moldova’s democratization.  

A number of activists and representatives of extraparliamentary parties spoke to the crowd. PAS leader Maia Sandu said the law to change the electoral system was invented by those who are in power so as to steal people’s votes and to keep power despite the people’s will. “What these do is dictatorship. They transformed our county into the poorest and most corrupt one. We do not have their money, but are powerful when we come together to plead the same cause so that the honest people work in this country,” she stated.

PPPDA leader Andrei Nastase said the current political class should be removed and replaced with upright and professional people who would make beneficial laws for the country. “We suggest introducing extended lustration, not only for the Communist system, but also for the non-Communist one, for those who are to blame for the embezzlement of the US$ 1 billion, who do not deserve at least the job of doorkeeper at a public institution. All those who are responsible for these illegalities should be jailed,” he noted, insisting on the idea of fully confiscating the property of those involved in different kinds of criminalities.

After the protest mounted in front of the Parliament Building, the crowd marched to the head office of the PSRM, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Presidential Residence and the head office of the PDM.