REVOCATION OF DP BILL WOULD BE WISEST FOR MOLDOVA – MEP

Member of the European Parliament Cristian Preda of Romania believes that “in the current situation, the wisest decision for Moldova would be to revoke from parliament the [Democratic Party’s] bill on changing electoral system in Moldova”.

The European parliamentarian stated to a local television program by phone that, in his opinion, this is the only possible rational decision – to revoke the bill and to return to reforms.

“All groups in the European Parliament indicated to the DP leadership the need to fully implement the Venice Commission recommendations. Also, all MEPs are unanimous in the opinion that there exists a direct dependence between the electoral system changing and the provision of macro-financial assistance. Moldova will not receive the funding from the European Union if it does not give up its plan to change the current voting system and does not observe the Venice Commission recommendations”, stressed Preda.

The Romanian MEP believes that “citizens of Moldova are waiting for something different. There are more important problems in Moldova than the electoral system change that will ensure state power to a few persons. We stand ready to provide assistance to the Republic of Moldova but not to underpin the regime that changes electoral systems for the only sake of remaining at power. We cannot ask money from European taxpayers for somebody’s political adventures in Chisinau. This is not normal”, stated the European parliamentarian.

DP press secretary Vitalie Gamurari said that the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, and other Brussels officials are coming to Chisinau shortly to take stock of the situation here.

“The Democratic Party has never said it will not observe the Venice Commission recommendations. On the contrary, that was precisely why the bill was sent to the Commission for an expert examination – to improve the document with an account of the Commission’s opinion. At the same time, we must take account of what has been promised to citizens and of the opinion of voters, two-thirds of whom stand for changing the current proportional representation system. The truth is somewhere in the middle. That’s what must be achieved”, said Vitalie Gamurari.