NGO leaders recommend depoliticizing post of head of state

Leaders of Moldovan nongovernmental organizations recommend the political actors to take into account the European principles of electing the President. “The Constitutions of the parliamentary European countries that elect the President directly or indirectly ban the head of state from holding any other public post, the NGO leaders say in a statement, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The statement was signed by Sergiu Ostaf, of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO), Vanu Jereghi, of the Moldova Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) and Liubov Nemcinova, of the International Society for Human Rights, the Moldovan Section. The NGO leaders recommend that the President should withdraw from any political party from the moment that he/she applies for this post and during the whole term in office, that the fielded candidate should enjoy authority and considerable moral legitimacy in the country and have abilities to communicate and negotiate with all the actors and forces, that the elected candidate should symbolize the unity of the society and have abilities to earn the trust of the major actors of the society. Another traditional principle of the European parliamentary countries, to which the Constitution of Moldova subscribes, is that the President is not allowed to hold simultaneously any other public post, this being the expression of the constitutional principle of separation of state powers, the statement says. The signatories say that the Constitution of Moldova is formal and declarative if it is not implemented consistently and in accordance with the European practices. Eleven European countries, including five in Central Europe, have a parliamentary constitutional regime and elect the head of state indirectly. These are: Albania, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Switzerland and Moldova.