Differing opinions were stated in the first public debate on the parliamentary initiative on the introduction of the uninominal voting system.

Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu said the uninominal voting system meets the challenges of time. Something should definitely be changed so that the people are better represented, while the distance between the voter and the MP is shorter.

Political analyst Vitalii Andrievski said the current electoral system brought to power parties that survive as long as they have a leader or have access to administrative resources. On the other hand, the uninominal voting system will enable new politicians to come to power as we need new political elite.

Executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy Igor Botan said it should be determined if the proposed change meets the constitutional norms and if it strengthens society and the state institutions or divide these. “Our conclusion is that this proposal runs counter to a series of constitutional norms,” he stated. According to him, it is inopportune to modify the electoral system as long as the Transnistrian conflict hasn’t been settled. Also, actions should be taken to improve the electoral legislation, including to exclude the electoral threshold for independents.

Head of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova Vladislav Gribincea stated that the electoral system of Moldova indeed requires changes, but these should result from the recommendations of the Constitutional Court and international experts, concerning voting abroad, party financing, covering of election campaigns by the media. “The uninominal voting system is not the most spread model in Europe. There are many other models that we should discuss. Such an important decision cannot be taken in a hurry and based on diverse polls that mainly manipulate,” he stated.

New debates on the issue will be held next week.

The initiative to introduce the uninominal voting system instead of the party-list proportional representation system was registered in Parliament by Democratic MPs in mid-March.