​LDPM AND LRP SUGGEST HOLDING REFERENDUM ON CHANGING ORDER OF ELECTING PRESIDENT

The parliamentary Liberal Democratic Party and Liberal Reformist Party are proposing to hold a nationwide referendum on amending the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova so as to return to electing president by the whole nation, not by 101 parliamentarians as currently.

This idea is contained in the LDPM’s address to the Constitutional Court and in the legislative initiative, which a group of deputies is going to submit to Parliament.

According to the bill, the LDPM and LRP propose to introduce, by means of a referendum, amendments to several Articles in the Constitution pertaining to election and dismissal of president, as well as to the Law on the Constitutional Court, to the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction and to the Election Code.

The initiators have requested the Constitutional Court to examine if this initiative is in harmony with the Constitution, and the Parliament – to announce the holding of a constitutional referendum on the issue. According to the draft of a parliamentary Resolution already prepared by them, the referendum should be held on November 30 i.e. simultaneously with the parliamentary elections.

The bill authors are saying that the procedure of electing president needs to be changed in order to avoid repetition of political crises like the one that happened in Moldova a couple of years ago.

Earlier, LDPM Chairman Vlad Filat proposed to hold another referendum on November 30 – on the country’s development vector: towards the East or the West.

The Liberal Democrats needed to receive the signatures of the Liberal Reformers because Constitution amendment initiatives may be submitted by groups of initiators numbering not less that one-third of the 101-member Parliament of Moldova – i.e. by minimum 34 deputies. But the LDPM faction consists of only 31 members.

The legislative initiative of the two parties was discussed on Tuesday at the meeting of the Council of the ruling Coalition for Pro-European Governance (CEG), which gathered primarily to discuss the agenda of the beginning new Autumn-Winter Session of Parliament. At the Council meeting, Democratic Party deputies were strongly against such referendum.

Also, speaking on Tuesday at the 2nd debate forum on European integration issue in Chisinau, Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu spoke categorically against the holding of whatever referenda simultaneously with the parliamentary elections.

He said, “Now it’s really not a proper time for this, though we can hear some proposals to organize a referendum together with the elections. I guess this should not be done. The forthcoming election will be very important for Moldova’s European path, so we must concentrate only and entirely on the election”, stressed Marian Lupu.