The referendum on the dismissal is a vote of no confidence against a particular person. In Moldova, there are a multitude of problems related to this type of referendum, including the lack of culture of participation in such exercises, Director of the Association for Participatory Democracy Igor Botan, standing expert of IPN’s project, stated in the public debate “Anti-Chirtoaca referendum: to take part or to boycott it, where and why should we put a tick?” that was staged by IPN News Agency. In another development, the expert said it is bad that Dorin Chirtoaca cannot take part in this referendum, but it is the citizen who decides whether to take part in the vote or not and how to vote.
According to the expert, Moldova witnessed only one referendum that involved a large number of citizens. This was the national referendum held in March 1994. That referendum was organized because the people had to give the go ahead for adopting the Constitution. In 1999, there was held a consultative referendum on the switchover to the presidential republic. This wasn’t validated. In the third plebiscite, which took place on September 5, 2010, a political party for the first time decided to boycott a referendum and that boycott had a decisive impact.
Igor Botan said that under the Moldovan legislation the referendum is equal to elections and all the procedures are similar. However, the elections imply persons and their programs, while the referendum implies ideas, policy projects and are bipolar, where the elector votes “yes” or “no”. The referendum on dismissal implies both of these forms. It is a vote of confidence or of no confidence against a particular person in a particular post.
According to the expert, if the referendum is associated with elections, the vote is freely expressed and any citizen decides whether to vote in the referendum or not. Under the Election Code, campaigning is also a form of supporting or rejecting a cause and there are no problems related to the boycott that is promoted by some of the political parties. In the current situation, the political factor prevails over the administrative one, especially in the capital city. “The big problem is that the elections in Chisinau municipality are political or geopolitical in character. Regrettably, the political factor persists and is now the most pronounced one,” stated Igor Botan.
The public debate “Anti-Chirtoaca referendum: to take part or to boycott it, where and why should we put a tick?” was the 79th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are staged with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
