Even if it is not clear, the decision of particular NGOs to boycott the publish discussions will be respected, Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu says in a posting on Facebook. The Speaker reacted thus to the decision of a number of NGOs to boycott the participation in public debates if it is insisted on the replacement of the electoral system, IPN reports.
Eighteen civil society organizations requested to amend the Election Code’s provisions concerning the work of electoral bodies, party and election campaign funding, performance of the mass media in election campaigns, use of administrative resources, voter corruption and involvement of religious organizations in the election campaign. In a news conference at IPN, representatives of the organizations said they will boycott the participation in public discussions within the working group that will be set up by Parliament if this focuses on the substitution of the electoral system.
Andrian Candu said civil society has always demanded that the initiatives should be debated before they are subject to the vote in Parliament. Referring to the draft law to institute the uninominal voting system, he said that this initiative represents the wish of 80% of the voters and voiced hope that the people will hear arguments both for and against.
“The bill will be subject to public debates, will be presented to the people as this how things should go in a democratic society and this is what those who now announced the boycott of discussions earlier asked for,” wrote Andrian Candu.
On March 6, the president of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc presented an initiative aimed at replacing the party-list proportional representation system with the uninominal voting system. Among the NGOs that intend to boycott the public debates if it insisted on the replacement of the electoral system are “Promo-LEX”, East Europe Foundation, the Independent Journalism Center, the Association for Participatory Democracy and the Institute for Public Policy.
