The Constitutional Court endorsed the civic initiative to amend Articles 60, 70, 78 and 89 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova by a referendum, based on a request made by the Central Election Commission (CEC), IPN reports.

The CEC received the set of documents required for registering a civic initiative group for holding a constitutional plebiscite on the amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova.

The bill to review the Constitution, based on which the referendum will be held, provides that the following questions will be put in the plebiscite: “1. Are you for amending Article 60, par. (2) of the Constitution so that the number of MPs is reduced from 101 to 71?; 2. Are you for excluding par. (3) of Article 70 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the MPs cannot be detained, arrested, searched, except for cases of flagrant offenses, or brought to justice without the Parliament’s consent?; 3. Are you for amending and supplementing Article 78 of the Constitution so that it allows for the election of the President of the Republic of Moldova by universal, equal, direct, secret and freely expressed vote?; 4. Are you for modifying Article 89 of the Constitution so that it allows Parliament to accept an initiative of at least one third of MPs to suspend the President of the Republic of Moldova from post if this violated the Constitution, by holding a referendum on the dismissal of the President within 70 days? – For. – Against”.

As a result of deliberations, the Constitutional Court ruled that the provisions of the bill to review the Constitution do not run counter to the constitutional provisions and the legislative proposal to review the Constitution does not violate the limits of revision.

The Court stated that after the CEC adopts a decision on the initiation of the referendum, Parliament has the constitutional obligation to immediately set the referendum date and to allocate financial resources for holding it, in accordance with the law. Thus, Parliament cannot prevent the people from deciding by referendum if the Constitution should be amended.

The Court’s appraisal is definitive and cannot be appealed and takes effect when it is adopted. It is published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova.