If the initiative group for organizing the referendum on the abrogation of the law by which changes were made to the Election Code manages to organize the plebiscite, this could rally about 1 million people, Stefan Gligor, chairman of the initiative group’s Executive Bureau, stated in the program “Politics” on TV8 channel, IPN reports.

According to him, if the plebiscite is not organized, the Republic of Moldova will remain bogged down in a morass for another four years and the situation after 2022 will be even more difficult and the chances of returning to the proportional representation system will be even smaller.

Lilia Carasciuc, executive director of Transparency International Moldova, said the initiative group will not limit itself to the 200,000 signatures required for holding a legislative referendum and will collect a larger number of signatures so as to be sure of the result.

Alexei Tulbure, ex-representative of Moldova to the UN and the Council of Europe, said Parliament has only two variants of reaction to the referendum initiative – either to name the plebiscite day or to vote to annul the mixed electoral system and to thus save money. “No one asks for the Parliament’s opinion,” stated Alexei Tulbure.

Political analyst Corneliu Ciurea said that if the referendum is successful and the new electoral system is annulled, Parliament will have to make a new law as, in his opinion, it is not possible to return to the situation before the amendment of the Election Code. “This will be an aspect within the competence of the Constitutional Court – to allow holding the referendum or not,” stated the analyst.

The initiative group for organizing the referendum on the abrogation of the law by which changes were made to the Election Code and the mixed-member electoral system was introduced was constituted on December 17 in a general assembly that brought together almost 700 people with the right to vote.