A consultative  referendum presents the public opinion and the future lawmakers can base their legislative proposals, including those for amending the Constitution, on the referendum results. This is the personal opinion stated by the member of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Iurie Ciocan in an interview for Radio Free Europe. He referred to the statements made by the incumbent Prime Minister Pavel Filip, who suggested holding the eventual snap parliamentary elections based on the results of the February 24 referendum, IPN reports.

According to Iurie Ciocan, the negotiations on the formation of a parliamentary majority and the results of a referendum are absolutely separate issues and should not be treated together. The outcome of the consultative referendum does not have immediate legal effects. The Constitution wasn’t modified to diminish the number of MPs.

“If there is the necessary political will, these things will be transposed to constitutional amendment proposals by going through all the legislative procedures, including the six-month break for considering the necessity, opportunity of amending the Constitution. Later, if this is amended, the new rule will be already applied. This is the theoretical part of the problem,” stated Iurie Ciocan.

Asked where money for organizing the snap parliament ray elections could be taken from, Iurie Ciocan said money can be taken only from the state budget as the electoral activities cannot be financed from other sources. He reminded that 100 million lei was earmarked for the last legislative elections.

Premier Pavel Filip, who heads the Democratic parliamentary group,  recently said that if snap parliamentary elections take place, these should be held in accordance with the results of the February 24 consultative referendum, which is by electing 61, not 101 MPs. In the referendum, almost 745,000 people voted for decreasing the number of MPs, while over 266,000 lei voted against.