The Promo-LEX Association, the Legal Resources Center and the Institute for European Policies and Reforms suggest that the Ministry of Justice should reduce the number of signatures that must be collected for having political parties registered in Moldova from 4,000 to 500 or at most 800.

Contacted by IPN, Promo-Lex programs director Pavel Postică said the three organizations formulated the proposal after the Constitutional Court declared some of the provisions of the law on political parties unconstitutional, concerning the number of members needed for registering a party and the geographical distribution of the collected signatures.

According to Pavel Postica, the existence of a minimum number of signatures needed for registering a party does not run counter to the democratic standards, but this number should be revised down for Moldova, to 500 or at most 800. “As regards the collection of signatures at regional or district level, we consider this provision blocks the possibility and violates the right to association that is enshrined in the European Convention. Therefore, we proposed excluding this provision by which the parties, for being registered, need to collect signatures in a number of settlements or regions of the country,” stated Pavel Postica.

Legal Resources Center director Vladislav Gribincea said a comparative analysis showed that Moldova is among the countries with the largest number of signatures required for registering a political party in relation to the population. Probably this is the reason why few parties were registered in the recent period. There were witnessed many attempts to buy parties before the elections. This means it is easier to buy a party than to found one and this is unreasonable.

Vladislav Gribincea noted it is not very clear why such a large number of signatures and a rather sophisticated procedure for registering a political party are needed in Moldova. If a party is not sustainable, it will anyway “die”. “We understand that we cannot have a large number of parties as this will confuse the voters in elections, but a midway solution should be identified and this should be at least slightly in accordance with the practices used in the region,” he said

According to Iulian Groza, executive director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, the average between the number of signatures needed for registering a party and the number of people in Moldova is higher than in the European states. “We consider the number of 4,000 signatures required for registering a party is exaggeratedly high,” he stated, noting in Romania one needs only three signatures to have a party registered.

Iulian Groza said that any group that wants to found a political or sociopolitical organization can do it and no one should ban this. But the existence of a party should be regulated and the competent authorities should make sure that this party works in accordance with the law, obeys the financial conditions, the principles of democracy, integrity, etc. Regulations are needed in order to limit or prevent the appearance of parties founded for purposes that are not directly related to political activity.

A number of 62 political parties are now registered in the Republic of Moldova.