Moldovan lawmakers pass draft law on status of Chisinau municipality in final reading

Chisinau, 17 June /MOLDPRES/ - The draft law on the status of the Chisinau municipality, a document offering more powers to the capital’s mayor, was adopted in final reading with the votes of 56 MPs.

The opposition and the non-affiliated lawmakers criticized the document. The faction of the Party of Socialists (PSRM) proposed 50 amendments to the draft, turned down by the parliamentary majority. The Socialists said it was an anti-constitutional law and did not rule out to appeal it at the Constitutional Court.  

The draft law on the status of Chisinau municipality was put forward by a group of Liberal Party (PL) lawmakers. The PL MPs said the document would allow avoiding the conflict of competences between the mayor and the Chisinau municipal council (CMC). Under the document, the mayor will have possibility to appoint to office the deputy mayors, without the agreement of CMC. If the Council rejects the candidatures put forward by the mayor to the office of deputy mayor two times in a row, the mayor has right to appoint the deputy mayor under an instruction, brought to the knowledge of CMC.   

The parliamentary commission for public administration, regional development, environment and climate changes said that “this legislative initiative is in line with the process of decentralization of power in Moldova, proceeding from the provisions of the national strategy of decentralization and the action plan on the implementation of the strategy of decentralization for 2012-2015.”  

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)