PAS LEADER CALLS ON INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT MOLDOVA ON ITS WAY TO DEMOCRACY

Leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) Maia Sandu addressed to the international community and Moldova's foreign partners with the call not to leave the republic on its way to democracy.

In an article in a prestigious British publication openDemocracy, she maintains that Moldova was once a leader in democratic transition in the post-Soviet space, but today its high hopes of joining the European family of nations have proven to be an illusion.

She explained that Moldova is now a captured state. One politician, whose party received less than 16% of the vote in the 2014 parliamentary election, now has the dubious honor of running the entire country.

"Despite holding no public office, oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc is now the kingpin of Moldova. He has managed to take over all of the key state institutions, including parliament, the government and the judiciary, by all the means at his disposal. The recent adoption of the highly controversial electoral reform and attempts to restrict the independence of civil nongovernmental organizations serve as vivid examples of Moldova's democratic backsliding. By changing the electoral system, Democratic Party leader Vlad Plahotniuc and pro-Russian president Igor Dodon, elected with Plahotniuc's support, have established a de facto political cartel in order to marginalize the remaining opposition parties from political competition", Sandu maintains.

According to her, Moldovan civil society has also vocally condemned these changes to the electoral system. The Venice Commission criticized the proposal as inappropriate for Moldova. Nonetheless, the Plahotniuc-Dodon cartel has enacted the mixed electoral system

"After having captured the Moldovan state and continuously depriving its citizens of their basic human rights and liberties, Plahotniuc has the audacity to portray himself as the promoter of Moldova's EU integration agenda and, recently, came up with an amendment to the Constitution, which would reconfirm Moldova's strategic goal of European integration. This move is yet another empty gesture aimed at maintaining the pretence of Democratic Party's pro-European image, while also channeling the public debate along geopolitical lines away from pressing social, economic and political issues at home", the PAS leader wrote.

She also expressed concern alarmed that the next parliamentary election in November 2018 will fail to meet democratic standards and pleaded with Moldova's friends and partners in the international community not to give up on democracy in the country.

"Too many Moldovans still hold great hope and are willing to stand up for their country and its democratic future", Sandu stated.