Opposition claims illegality of candidate selection for the function of CCA member

Several MPs representing the opposition claimed, on Thursday, October 19, at the plenary sitting of the Parliament, that transgressions were committed in the process of selecting candidates for the function of member of the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual (CCA). The debate began after Victor Stepaniuc, the head of the specialized commission, solicited that the examination of the issue concerning the confirmation in function of the CCA members is postponed for Friday, “because there is a need of some consultations with the Committee for Legal issues, in order to clarify information concerning a particular candidate”. In the context, the MP, Dumitru Braghis, declared that while selecting candidates, the commissions violated the legislation in force. Ion Plesca, member of the Committee for Legal Issues, Appointments and Immunities suggested that, in conformity with the Audiovisual Code (CA), candidates should be selected by both committees. On the other hand, in reality the specialized committee presented the Legal commission already selected candidatures. The head of the Democrat faction, Dumitru Diacov also specified that article no. 43 of the CA provides for the selection of candidates by those two committees. “The specialized committee examined this issue in a rather strange way” the MP affirmed. On the other hand, Victor Stepaniuc declared that, conforming to legislation, the specialized Committee should present a report and the Legal one a co-report, things that were actually respected. Stepaniuc have been supported by Vlad Cubreacov, the leader of the Christian Democrat faction, who also declared that the selection procedure was transparent, publicly presented, reflected in media and, thus, any MP could join the session. The Mass-Media Committee selected the candidates for the function of CCA members last week. 5 out of the total 9 candidates were proposed by the communist MPs from the committee, 3 – by PPCD and 1- by PD. The representative of AMN didn’t vote, declaring that the whole selection is a “circus”. According to the Audiovisual Code MPs were to vote the staff of the authority to regulate the audiovisual till October 18.