After an apparently harsh opposition between Vlad Plahotniuc and Igor Dodon over the modification of the electoral system, the bills proposed by the two were merged in Parliament. The authors of a new Sic! article say that even if they voted for the same thing, the MPs later resorted to diametrically opposed interpretations. Even more curiously, the Head of State boasted of a victory against the PDM, even if his bill was adopted by the votes of the Democrats inclusively, IPN reports.
The article says that Valeriu Giletski, who recently joined the members of the European People’s Party of Moldova in Parliament and voted for the uninominal system together with them, despite the earlier promises, triumphantly said that he “buried” the uninominal voting system. His explanation was that before the bill is put to the vote in the second reading, this will be modified in accordance with the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the group of the European People’s Party of Moldova so that the uninominal voting system proposed by Plahotniuc will not be introduced.
The same pretext was invoked by Igor Dodon when he submitted the proposal concerning the mixed-member electoral system, whose contradictions were earlier analyzed by Sic!. According to the President, the mixed-member system will thwart Plahotniuc’s plan. After the vote, even if both of the bills gained a sufficient number of votes in Parliament before being merged, President Dodon said the Democrats’ bill is doomed to failure. More curiously, the Head of State boasted of a victory against the PDM, even if his bill was adopted by the votes of the Democrats inclusively.
Both the MPs of the European People’s Party of Moldova and the Socialist MPs argued that the Democrats anyway have enough votes to replace the electoral system. However, earlier all the parliamentary parties declared they are against the uninominal voting system. If the MPs of the European People’s Party of Moldova hadn’t voted for the bill, it’s not known if the Democrats would have collected the necessary number of votes.
“Sergiu Sarbu considers the vote was a step towards the uninominal voting system. The opinion is shared by Speaker Andrian Candu, according to whom the mixed-member electoral system is just a temporary compromise – a half-way to the uninominal system. He said that the elections of 2018 will be organized according to the mixed-member system, but the PDM does not give up the intention to introduce the uninominal voting system. Vlad Plahotniuc turned out to be the most optimistic one. According to him, after the elections of 2018, the people will see the benefits of the uninominal voting system and no politician will put up opposition in 2022. We will yet see if it is so or not,” says the article.
The full article in the Romanian can be read on sic.md. Sic! is a project implemented by IPN News Agency with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.
