The Constitutional Court (CC) suspended the Electoral Code provisions that ban persons associated with political parties that were declared unconstitutional from standing for election after MPs of the former Shor Party, which was declared unconstitutional in June, on September 26 filed a challenge, IPN reports.

The challenge was signed by MPs Marina Tauber, Vadim Fotescu, Petru Jardan, Regina Apostolova and Denis Ulanov. They asked the CC to determine the constitutionality of Article 16, par. (2) letter e) of the  Electoral Code.

In essence, the challenged provisions say that persons who were members of the executive body of a party or held elective posts on behalf of the party when the given party was declared unconstitutional by the CC cannot stand for elections within five years of the day the decision was pronounced. The challenge authors asked the Court to suspend the disputed provisions.     

The Court held that under Article 38, par. (3) of the Constitution, the right to stand for election is guaranteed to the citizens in accordance with the law and envisions, among others, the designation and registration of candidates by the electoral bodies. Also, the Court noted that this challenge was submitted during the registration of candidates for the local general elections set for November 5, 2023. This way, if Article 16, par. (2) letter e) of the  Electoral Code is declared unconstitutional, if the disputed provisions are not suspended, the decision will lack effectiveness. Therefore, it decided to accept the request to suspend the given provisions until the issue is examined in a CC meeting on October 3.