An application to sensitize the Constitutional Court (CC) was submitted by the Association “WatchDog.MD” Community to the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections for being promoted. The authors warn about the potential risks in the next parliamentary elections that will be held based on the mixed-member system. Representatives of the Coalition said the bill is well argued and will be promoted on the platform www.alegerliber.md. This can be taken by subjects that can sensitize the CC so as to register it with the High Court, IPN reports.
In a news conference at IPN, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT Igor Botan said the challenge formulated by specialists of the “WatchDog.md” Community requests the CC to pronounce on a number of aspects by interpreting the constitutional norms. Civil society wants to know if the guaranteeing of the rule of law concept by ensuring the citizens’ right to take part in the administration of public affairs and the right to choose and be chosen can be ascertained in Moldova; if the elections can be invalidated by competent state institutions in the absence of exact legal provisions and if the constitutional guarantees concerning the ensuring of the right to choose, the right to be chosen and the citizens’ right to take part in the administration of public affairs are affected by the invalidation of elections, in the absence of precise legal provisions and criteria.
The CC is asked to provide explanations over the validation or invalidation of elections by courts of law in the absence of an argued application to annul the elections, accompanied by pertinent proofs on which it is based, submitted by voters, electoral bodies or electoral competitors who took part in the elections, and if the constitutional case law should stipulate the criteria and electoral frauds that can lead to the invalidation of elections, before these regulation deficiencies are removed by the legislative authority.
The Court is also requested to check the constitutionality of the actions or inaction by courts of law and the central electoral body at the stage of nullification of elections and invalidation of the election of Andrei Nastase as mayor by the courts of law and when the central electoral authority ended the 2018 electoral procedures for electing the mayor general of Chisinau municipality without ordering to rerun the elections.
The Court should also pronounce on the method of implementing the reasoning, conclusions and observations that derive from the CC’s requests and Decision No.34/2016, namely: clarification of the legislation as regards the examination of challenges concerning the organization and holding of elections; modification of the mechanism and insuring of voting abroad; express regulation and institution of prompt and immediate penalizing mechanisms for any attempt to engage religious denominations in election campaigns; modification of the legislation concerning the responsibility of broadcasters in the electoral period, and invoking of voter corruption as a violation that can considerably influence the election outcome.
Given that parliamentary elections will take place in Moldova based on the mixed electoral system for the first time this year, the authors consider the CC should examine the challenge as a matter of urgency also because less than half a year remained until the parliamentary elections and the citizens should be protected against a danger that derives from the law and against the insecurity created by the law and the state institutions or that these could create.
