Moldovan government overturns legislative initiatives on reducing number, dismissing of MPs

Chisinau, 26 July /MOLDPRES/ – On 26 July, the Government ha approved the opinions on the draft decisions of the Parliament for elaboration of the draft law on modification and completion of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova on revocation of MPs and their reduction from 101 to 61. According to Government, aimed at reducing the number of MPs from 101 to 61 by amending the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, "is not judicious given that the informative note does not contain info on the issues that would justify the need for 61 MPs".

The Government has also noted that "Constitution adopted on 29 July 1994, stipulated the formation of the Parliament of Moldova in 101 MPs". When determining the current number of MPs, there were taken into account factors as: "state size, population number, form of governance, state structure, number of administrative – territorial units and states with similar number of population".

It is necessary to analise whether, by applying these changes, "it will ensure the efficiency of the work of Parliament, functionality of its working bodies and its own services," states the notice.

In the notice on initiative to set up a working group to amend the Constitution as to introduce possibility to revoke MPs which would not "fulfill their" duties properly, it is said that the adoption of such a project "would not be in the spirit of the Constitutional Court (CC) №08 of 19 June 2012, recommendations of the Venice Commission (CV), as well as desideratum of the European integration of Moldova". The document refers to CV, which states that "the basic constitutional principle banning the imperative mandate or any other form of political withdrawal of mandates of representatives must prevail as a cornerstone of European democratic constitutionalism."

On 24 February 2019, simultaneously with the Parliamentary elections, it was held a republican consultative referendum, organised at the PDM initiative, where citizens were asked if they agreed to reduce MPs from 101 to 61 and dismiss them if they did not perform the functions properly. Most of the participants in the referendum voted "for", the results being validated.