Moldovan MPs make amendments to Electoral Code

Chisinau, 4 October /MOLDPRES/ - The amendments made to the Electoral Code, which adjust the normative framework with the considerations of the Constitutional Court (CC), have been approved by the parliament in the first reading.   

The document was worked out by a group of MPs of the Action and Solidarity Party’s (PAS) faction and regard the provisions referring to the fact that the people who, on the date of the pronunciation of the CC’s ruling on the non-constitutionality of a party, were holding the capacity of member of the executive body or were holding elective offices in the concerned party, will not be able to be elected at ballots.   

In the context of the Constitutional Court’s considerations, the draft’s authors propose the completion of the Electoral Code, in order to clearly establish the criteria of the people who cannot be allowed as contenders in elections. Thus, they suggest the introduction of four criteria in the law: the people are suspected, accused or charged with the committing of offences mentioned by the Court as argument in the context of the declaring of the non-constitutionality of the political party; they were excluded from a former ballot as a result of the infringement of the principle of transparent financing and this was stated as distinct argument at the declaring of the non-constitutionality of the political party; are guilty of committing deeds which led to the inclusion of these people in lists of international sanctions of international organizations or of other states and this fact represents a particular circumstance stated by the Court in the context of the ruling on the declaring of the unconstitutionality of the party. The concerned restriction lasts three years after the date of the pronunciation by the Constitutional Court of the ruling on the declaring of the unconstitutionality of a political party.     

To enforce the concerned restriction, the General Police Inspectorate, the National Anticorruption Centre, Intelligence and Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office, jointly with the specialized prosecutor’s offices, will submit to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) the information on the people who are under the action of the concerned criteria, with the clear-cut mentioning of the concerned criterion. CEC, based on the information presented, will compile the list of people who are under action of this new restriction and will communicate it to the electoral bodies, which will take into account it in the process of enforcing the restriction at the registration of the electoral contenders.   

The MPs took a break till 14:00. To become law, the amendments made today must be adopted in the second reading and will enter into force on the date of their publication in the Official Journal (Monitorul Oficial).