Postal voting must be tested and implemented initially without any legal effects so that only in the next election or after an electoral exercise it is already considered in its entirety, MP of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BCS) Grigore Novac stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency.
“This postal voting, if it is to be piloted, should be without any legal effects. After testing this voting without legal effects, we will see what the gaps, shortcomings, pluses, minuses are and then will yet work on it. After two or three elections, it will be clear how it should be implemented. If you want to test and see the results of this test, it should be without legal effects,” said Grigore Novac.
The MP noted that the opposition will come up with amendments to improve the current draft law on the implementation of postal voting, but he believes that these will not be taken into account by the current parliamentary majority.
“We will propose amendments, but they will traditionally not be accepted. We believe that one should not insist so strongly because we haven’t seen any political party in the Republic of Moldova, out of all the existing ones, to pronounce on the necessity of this voting method now, at this stage and in the proposed formula, with legal effects,” stated Grigore Novac.
According to the MP, all the previous attempts by the opposition to provide arguments failed and met with reproaches that this postal voting could have been implemented as early as 2015 or 2019.
“I participated in debates and the arguments are not taken into account. Probably, the lack of arguments for nonacceptance somehow deviates from normalcy and we are told that in 2015 or 2019 we had to do something, when we were in opposition, but we are not told that in other periods Maia Sandu and Igor Grosu were part of ruling alliances,” said Grigore Novac.
He noted that the only solution to see how postal voting can be implemented and how electoral processes will work is for it to be introduced on a trial basis first.
“When it is desired and insisted that this project called “postal voting” should have legal effects and this vote should be taken into account in the next election, then it must be applied to all countries where citizens of the Republic of Moldova live, including European countries. We must not differentiate between our citizens, must not favor anyone and discriminate against them. This is something essential in a genuine democracy, in a normal democracy. If we tend towards the European Union, then grant this right to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who have been living in European countries for years,” said the BCS MP.
The public debate entitled “Postal voting: pros and cons” was the 303rd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates”, which is implemented with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
