DP PROPOSES TO REDUCE NUMBER OF PARLIAMENT MEMBERS BY 40%

The Democratic Party intends to put for referendum the initiative on reducing the number of parliament deputies to 61 from 101, said DP Chairman Vlad Plahotniuc after the party leadership sitting on Tuesday.

He maintains that due to this change the parliament will become more organized and efficient, as MPs will be more responsible, while the society will be able to easier monitor their activities.

Plahotniuc reminded that back in 2016 at the DP congress, when he was elected as party chairman, he promised to optimize the Government and the Parliament in order that citizens to have a real control over MPs.

The second proposal Democrats are going to put for referendum is the creation of a mechanism of recalling mandates from deputies, who disappointed electors and do not represent anymore those who voted for them and delegated them to the legislature.

"We have not proposed these initiatives for referendum before, because we wanted to avoid separate expenditures, as well as because usually the turnout at referendums is too low and we risk to get a result that does not reflect the opinion of most Moldovan citizens", Plahotniuc said.

He maintains that the upcoming parliamentary elections on February 24, 2019 are a good moment for conducting a referendum, as the state will not have to suffer great losses and it is possible to ensure a high turnout of electors.

The Democrats' leader said that the referendum will allow the next Parliament to conduct the promised reform of the legislature.

"First of all, we decided to discuss our initiatives with citizens. If they support them, we will discuss them with local experts, as well as with the Venice Commission, in order to find a better way of reform implementation", he said.