“The citizens should realize one thing: we either have a declared parliamentary majority that obliges the President to name a candidate of this majority for the premiership and this is a solution to the governmental crisis. Or, if we do not have such a majority, the President, taking into account the case law of the Constitutional Court, can determine the dissolution of Parliament by different methods and she could not be reproached for some of her actions. As long as Parliament cannot produce a parliamentary majority that would assume governance, the President during 90 days can dissolve Parliament. Either parliamentary majority or snap elections in 90 days,” the standing expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in the public debate “What parliamentary parties think about snap elections, if they anticipate them?” that was staged by IPN.
“If there is a declared parliamentary majority, a new government is named and the President does not have another solution than to appoint the government. If there is no declared parliamentary majority, the President has a series of instruments at her disposal to pave the way for snap elections and she can do this decently, without being accused or subject to the suspension procedure,” stated Igor Boțan, noting the suspension procedure can be started, but the votes of two thirds of MPs are needed to put it into practice and it is hard to do this.
The expert noted Maia Sandu can achieve her goal of becoming a national leader if she has a government that is her emanation. In the absence of a parliamentary majority, Maia Sandu can propose a candidate for Prime Minister she likes, for example one of her advisers. This adviser will start work and in two weeks will say that in the absence of a parliamentary majority, this could not find sufficient people to devise an electoral program and thus renounces the seat. Later, Maia Sandu suggests another candidate and the situation repeats, until the three-month period expires.
According to Igor Boțan, the best solution for having snap elections not in June, but in April is to have Parliament dissolved as a result of two failed attempts to name the Government. This can happen if particular groups that have more than 51 MPs together state publicly that they will not come to the sittings to invest the Premier. In this case, the President names again a candidate for Prime Minister, but the investiture sittings are not held because a quorum is not present. Forty-five days will this way pass and a month can be gained. But there should not be illusions that things will be brought to an end in such a way.
The public debate “What parliamentary parties think about snap elections, if they anticipate them?” is the 167th installment of the series “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
