Executive director of the Resource Center for Human Rights Sergiu Ostaf said that if there hadn’t been ambiguous methods of interpreting the electoral legislation and a multitude of solutions that can be left to the discretion of those who apply the law, there would have been less space for exerting influence available to different players. “There is a political problem. This affects the legitimacy of the electoral institution and we should all be concerned, especially from the perspective of the future impact,” he stated in the public debate “Legislative and political, internal and external solutions to the conflict situation generated by invalidation of Chisinau elections”, which was the 92nd installment of the series “Developing political culture by public debates” staged by IPN News Agency.
Sergiu Ostaf said problems exist in politics and these involve not only political players, but also other players who manifest themselves actively and aggressively in the public sphere. A mixture of interests could have existed in the case of the election invalidation. There is a problem in the interpretation of laws, in the judicial area, as, even if there is an ambiguous law, the judges form a practice that prevails over ambiguity.
“There is also a legislative or legal problem as, in a democracy based on law, there are exact and clear rules that limit the manifestation and influencing of the interest of politicians or other players and this is how a democracy based on law functions. If there hadn’t been these ambiguous methods of interpreting the law or a multitude of solutions that can be left to the discretion of those who apply the law, there would have been less space for exerting influence available to different players,” he stated.
According to Sergiu Ostaf, the election invalidation film has five episodes and the fifth episode is lived now, when we see the deputy mayor of Chisinau making an order to name himself acting mayor. Only a legislative solution can exist at this stage. In the previous episodes, there were also legal and political solutions. “Regrettably, intelligent societies fail to apply such solutions. This refers to all the players that interact with the Republic of Moldova,” he stated.
Sergiu Ostaf also said that the aspects that should be specified by law include the conditions in which the elections can be nullified, the proportionality of the punishments in the case of the partial or complete annulment of the ballot and exclusion of candidates from the electoral race. “These are now all chaotic and incoherent and this enables to judge a situation outside the rules of normality,” he concluded.
The debate “Legislative and political, internal and external solutions to the conflict situation generated by invalidation of Chisinau elections” forms part of the series of public debates staged by IPN News Agency and Radio Moldova within the project “Developing political culture by public debates” that is supported by the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.
