EXPERT IGOR BOTAN MAINTAINS MIXED ELECTION SYSTEM DOES NOT FIT MOLDOVA

With an account of concrete conditions in Moldova, the mixed election system appears to be totally not fit for the republic, maintains Igor Botan, Director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT).

On Wednesday, he took part in a debate on the forthcoming parliamentary election, and stated that firstly, it is still totally unknown how voting will be organized in the Transnistrian region [having a population of half a million]. Secondly, an administrative-territorial reform has not been carried out in the country and, as a consequence, single-member constituencies have been formed in haste and without an account of many details that are essential for an electoral process. For instance, the numerous Moldovan diaspora in many foreign countries has received the possibility to elect only 3 deputies to the Moldovan Parliament.

Igor Botan said also that the mixed election system violates the principle of the representativeness of deputies because one deputy will be elected to parliament from a constituency having 50,000 voters, while another candidate - from a constituency with 5 thousand voters.

"Of course, the approval of this or that election system is a domestic question to be solved independently in a country and by the country. But our European partners, though abiding by the principle of non-interference into countries' domestic affairs, may finger at the EU-Moldova Association Agreement, in which the republic has assumed a number of commitments to be fulfilled", said the expert.

"This is precisely why it is erroneous to believe that the non-validation of the Chisinau mayoral election results last summer became the main reason of the European Parliament's critical Resolutions. No, that was "the last straw" in a long series of Moldova's inconsistencies with the AA rules of cooperation", stated Igor Botan.

Lawyer Sergey Mishin, a Member of the Civic Chamber functioning under the auspices of the President of Moldova, said that extra risks at the February election will be definitely generated by such bizarre initiatives as e.g. the sudden decision to hold a referendum on the election day, or the possibility of introducing an imperative mandate, which runs contrary to the Constitution.

"We are concerned also about the initiative to cancel the Silence Day [practiced traditionally on the Saturdays preceding election Sundays], and the parliamentary majority's attempts to railroad a bill stipulating that a Member of Parliament must necessarily speak the Romanian language, otherwise the person has no right to run for parliament. We regard this as nothing but an attempt to impose restrictions on potential candidates yet before the beginning of an election campaign", stated lawyer Sergey Mishin.