The bill to replace the party-list proportional representation system with the mixed-member electoral system was passed in the final reading by the votes of 74 MPs. Thus, half of the 101 MPs will be chosen by party lists, while the other half by uninominal constituencies, IPN reports.
The draft law was adopted after a number of MPs left the assembly ball. Communist MP Inna Supac said the Communist group does not want to witness the usurpation of power in the state. They asked that the vote should be nominal so that the country knows its heroes, but their request was rejected.
Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu replied that the Communist MPs refused to take part in the debates on the bill that were held in Parliament and where a consensus was reached. Before the vote, Andrian Candu thanked the participants in the debate and the experts of the Venice Commission who appraised the proposal.
Under the changes made in the Election Code, 50 members of Parliament will be chosen based on party lists, while 51 MPs by uninominal vote in constituencies. The constituencies will be formed by a special commission set up by the Government, which will include representatives of civil society, parliamentary and extraparliamentary parties, national minorities, academic community and experts. The information about electoral constituencies will be published in the Official Gazette one year before the elections. To ensure better representation of voters abroad and on the left bank of the Nistru in Parliament, the geographical division criterion will be taken into account when forming constituencies.
A series of stimulatory measures were taken to ensure gender equality. To promote women in politics, the parties that will maintain the current gender representation quota of 40% for uninominal constituencies will benefit from a bonus of 10% that will increase with each woman who will enter Parliament, according to a coefficient. The number of signatures needed to register a female candidate is twice lower than that for registering a male candidate.
