Civil society activist Veaceslav Valco  is convinced that for 30 years now, the Moldovan Parliament has been in the hands of the so-called ‘Pakhans’ – criminal kingpins or mafia dons, who control everything in the legislative forum, even when they are not deputies. In his opinion, presently they are again doing their utmost to force their way to power “so that to be close to the public trough and to pad their pockets”.           

Speaking at his news conference held at News Agency Infotag, Valco expressed discontent about the unequal conditions of collecting citizens’ signatures that have to be met by independent election contesters and by political parties.  

“Our Constitution guarantees each citizen of Moldova the right to elect and to be elected. In the reality, however, our Election Code stipulates norms that primordially make it impossible for a plain man or woman to get to parliament”, said Valco.   

He believes it was unfair and unjust to introduce into the Election Code the norm of 2% ballots, which an independent must poll to enter the Parliament.  

“Look, the Moldovan Parliament consists of 101 deputies. If to divide this figure by 100%, you will see that an independent candidate must poll 0.99% ballots to become a parliamentarian, not 2% as now. This Election Code provision must have been challenged long ago”, presumes Valco.