New Law on political parties restricts their activity: study

The new law on political parties contains more restrictions for the work of political party, find the authors of the study “Pre-Electoral Context on the Eve of the 2009 Elections,” Info-Prim Neo reports. Igor Botan, one of the authors, stated, at the launch event on November 18, the new law on parties and raising the electoral threshold to enter the parliament have changed the game rules right before the elections. The new regulations already create conflict situations and damage the work of some political parties, having to sue the Hustice Ministry to register their modifications of statutes, Botan said. According to the authors the high thresholds for parties (6%) and independent candidates (3%) decrease the advantages of the proportional system and favor the big parties. Corneliu Gurin, another author, says the enforcement of the law should be applied permissively, especially if its provisions are not explicit enough. According to him, it's still possible review the electoral threshold. Other amendments should not be operated. The research appeared in a program by Eurasia Foundation meant to support free and fair democratic elections in 2009.