SINGLE-MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES HAVE BEEN TAILORED FOR PLAHOTNIUC AND DODON - PAS

Single-member constituencies in Moldova have been formed in a way to ensure victory to oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc and President Igor Dodon at the 2018 parliamentary election, maintain the leaders of the right-wing opposition Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS).

Party Chairperson Maya Sandu stated at a news conference on Thursday that the activities of the National Commission for Single-Member Constituency Formation and the Commission's project of constituency shaping (both made public on October 30) go contrary to the universally accepted democratic principles and are an extra proof that the Plahotniuc authorities are eager to receive full control in the country through rigging the forthcoming parliamentary election.

"That's precisely why the Party of Action and Solidarity has refused to take part in the Commission work", said Maya Sandu.

"The ruling coalition ignored and is continuing to ignore all PAS initiatives. So we have decided to pay in the same coin. The existence of such a system of single-member constituencies will let the Plahotniuc's Democratic Party achieve its main goal after the election - to form a coalition with the Dodon's Party of Socialists. But the PAS shall continue its campaign of informing citizens about the inefficiency of the mixed election system, and shall continue its close cooperation with international partners to defend democratic values in Moldova", said Maya Sandu.

Sergiu Litvinenco of the PAS leadership offered an opinion that the Commission has ignored the recommendations of European partners, in particular of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.

"The Commission must be a fully non-political, unbiased and independent body. But what independence can we speak about if 90% of the Commission members are the representatives of the Democratic Party and the Party of Socialists?" said the PAS activist indignantly.

He further said that the constituencies were formed "by using God knows what criteria", and that the Commission was deaf to the numerous statements of the civil society and expert community.

"For Moldovan voters staying abroad, the Commission has created only 3 constituencies, which is a crying discrimination of the Moldovan diaspora abroad and a gross violation of the principle of an equal election right. Thus, one vote of a Moldovan citizen staying in Russia has been equalized to 9 votes of Moldovans living in Italy. The Commission must have discussed and substantiated its project of single-member constituencies at broad public debates, but this did not happen. All these facts are proving that the system of single-member constituencies was approved at a joint sitting of the GBC [Plahotniuc's main company] and the Party of Socialists, and the Commission only approved the decision taken at that joint meeting", said the PAS activist.

Infotag's dossier: According to the project of the National Commission for Single-Member Constituency Formation, Moldova is going to have 51 such constituencies namely 46 in Moldova, 3 abroad (in Russia, USA and in European Union countries) and 2 for Transnistria residents. On October 30, the Commission handed in the document to the Government for considerable.