The way in which the electoral constituencies were formed in Moldova violate both the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the Election Code of Moldova. In a study presented on February 2, expert of the association WatchDog.md Community Valeriu Pasa says only 32% of the recommendations of the Venice Commission can be fully found in the final text of the law by which the mixed-member electoral system was introduced, IPN reports.

According to Valeriu Pasa, the Venice Commission formulated 28 recommendations, ten of which were fully included in the law, four were included only partially, while 14 were ignored. The Moldovan law does not even explicitly ban the practice of gerrymandering, when the size and borders of an area for voting are changed in order to give an unfair advantage to one party or group in an election.

Other ignored recommendations refer to the transparency and independence of the commission that drew up the electoral map and to clearer criteria for forming constituencies for the diaspora and the Transnistrian region. Valeriu Pasa said five of the 20 members of the commission for forming electoral constituencies are officially members of the Democratic Party, while another eight are affiliates of the ruling party or open supporters of this.

The expert noted the way in which the constituencies were formed violates not only the recommendations of the Venice Commission, but also the national legislation. Thus, of the 31 Election Code provisions on constituencies, only 13 were observed, while five were respected partially.

The most evident violations refer to the size of constituencies. Only 24% of these have by 55 000-60 000 voters, as the Election Code provides. The provision stipulating that there should be a maximum difference of 10% in the number of constituency voters is also ignored. Except for Taraclia, only 15 constituencies meet the limit of 10%.

Also, the electoral law bans delimiting the borders of constituencies within territorial units of the first level. According to the expert, the districts of Chisinau are territorial units of the first level, while the constituencies that go from one district to another are illegal.

The expert said the violation of the Election Code provisions can serve as a reason for challenging the map of constituencies in court.

Valeriu Pasa was secretary of the initiative group for organizing the referendum on the abrogation of the law by which the mixed electoral system was introduced. The given referendum was blocked by the Central Election Commission by refusing to register the initiative group.