Moldovan electoral body rejects constitutional referendum organization initiative

Chisinau, 30 March /MOLDPRES/-The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) today rejected the initiative of Demintate si Adevar (DA) Platform (Dignity and Truth) to organize a republican referendum to change the president’s election method, reduce the number of MPs to 71 and strip them of immunity.

CEC president Iurie Ciocan said the commission had ascertained that the initiative group had failed to submit 20 thousand signatures from at least half of Moldova’s territorial-administrative units.

“The initiative group was supposed to submit at least 360 thousand valid signatures for each question included, from at least 18 administrative-territorial units, in order to initiate a republican constitutional referendum. Moreover, the group should have gathered at least 20 thousand signatures from each of these 18 administrative-territorial units to back this initiative. After performing the quantitative assessment of the subscription lists, CEC ascertained that out of the 34 districts/municipalities, only Chisinau, Balti and Orhei had the required number of signatures,” Ciocan said.

For his part, the head of DA Platform, Andrei Nastase  said “the decision is illegal and criminal, while CEC interprets the Constitution in its sole discretion and in favor of some politicians”.

“We will appeal this decision in the Supreme Court of Justice. We will require that the objection of unconstitutionality be raised and finally, we will seek justice, legality and equity at the European Court of Human Rights. We will also organize new large peaceful protests throughout the country,” Nastase noted.

The members of DA Platform submitted CEC more than 400 thousand collected signatures on 14 March 2016, in order to initiate a constitutional republican referendum. The draft amending the Constitution was submitted to CEC on 5 November 2015.

(Reporter P. Beregoi, Editor A. Raileanu)