Moldovan parliament speaker has meeting with joint delegation of Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR

Chisinau, 10 May /MOLDPRES/ - Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu has had a meeting with the joint delegation of the Venice Commission and OSCE/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), on a 9-11 May fact-collecting visit to Moldova, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.    

The visit took place in the context of the preparation by the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR of the notification on the draft law on revising the Moldovan electoral legislation. 

“We rely on the expertise and recommendations by the Venice Commission, in order to be able to discuss the draft in the second reading in parliament. A working group will improve the draft based on the recommendations received from all development partners,” Andrian Candu.  

The parliament will vote the draft law for the change of the electoral system only following the notification by the Venice Commission for the compromise draft, backed by wide consensus and adopted in the first reading by 74 lawmakers on 5 May 2017.   

On 9 May, the members of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR met the leaders of the extra-parliamentary parties. Today, the experts will have meetings with the leaders of the parliamentary parties, head of the Central Electoral Commission and justice minister. They also have scheduled a discussion with representatives of the civil society and the Moldovan president.  

The Venice Commission’s notification for the draft on the change of the electoral system is to be published in next June.  

It is worth mentioning that, in April 2017, more public discussions were organized on the draft for the change of the electoral system by the civil society and in  parliament. On 5 may, the MPs voted two draft laws in the first reading: the draft of the Democratic Party, which stipulates switch to the uninominal voting system and a draft registered by the Party of Socialists, which provides for the establishment of the mixed electoral system. The parliament’s juridical commission for rules and immunities proposed that the two drafts be merged for the second reading and the draft on the switch to the mixed electoral system be taken as basis.