Electoral law amended again

Only jurists with at least ten years of experience will be able to be appointed as members of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC.) The Moldovan Parliament approved of a bill modifying the Electoral Code in the first reading on Friday, February 29, Info-Prim Neo reports. The intention has triggered the reaction of the opposition, as some MPs have suggested thus the present members of the CEC are wanted to get replaced. Deputy speaker Iurie Roşca, the leader of the Christian-Democratic Popular Party, has said the CEC, with its present members, was perhaps not too obedient with some, during the last year’s elections. Thus a more docile team is getting readied in the perspective of the 2009 parliamentary elections. The chairman of the Legal Committee for Appointments and Immunities and one of the bill’s co-authors, Communist parliamentarian Vladimir Turcan has assured those changes will apply only on the future members of the CEC and has nothing to deal with the present ones. Another modification refers to the order of writing down the names of mayoralty hopefuls for the second round. The bill suggests to order the names on the ballot depending on the number of votes they will have gathered in the first round. Now they are ordered as being registered for the first round. This provision was qualified by the “Moldova Noastra” MP, Leonid Bujor, as having a political subtext, yet Turcan declined it. The draft also provides that, in case the voting process is suspended and cannot be resumed within 2 hours, the voting is considered suspended for a term no longer than 2 weeks, and the CEC, within 3 days, shall take a decision as to the date of resuming the poll. According to the authors, the modifications and additions are necessary because the local elections of 2007 proved that certain aspects and stages of the electoral process in Moldova are not duly regulated and need to be clarified or changed.