The initiative group for annulling the mixed-member electoral system, through the agency of a group of MPs, submitted an application concerning the citizens’ right to initiate legislative referendums to the Constitutional Court. In a news conference at IPN on April 5, representatives of the initiative group said they requested the constitutional judges to say who the power belongs to in the Republic of Moldova: the people or a group of persons with interests.
Stefan Gligor, programs director at the Center for Politics and Reforms, reminded about the two failed attempts to register the initiative group for holding a referendum on the annulment of the mixed voting system. The constitutional judges will have to say if the citizens have the right to hold legislative referendums or not given that the Central Election Commission (CEC), when it refused the second time to register the initiative group, made reference to an appraisal of the Parliament’s legal commission according to which the Constitution does not expressly regulate the legislative referendums. “We have no other way out than to submit such an application so as to defend the rights of the citizens. We request the Constitutional Court to explain if the people of the Republic of Moldova are sovereign or not. If not, we will have to state the death of Moldova’s people,” stated Stefan Gligor.
Valeriu Pasa, expert of the association “WatchDog.md” Community, said the CEC was sued for refusing to register the initiative group. If need be, they will go to the European Court of Human Rights. “We will be able to say if there is an independent state in the Republic of Moldova or not depending on the verdict and on how swiftly the application is examined as we asked to deal with it as a matter of urgency,” he noted.
According to Lilia Carasciuc, executive director of Transparency International Moldova, what is going on now in Moldova is a step backward on the democratic path. If the mixed electoral system is applied at the next elections, more people will see that there is no democracy here. It’s time for the rulers to understand that the people can explode.
Analyst Alexei Tulbure said there is no democracy in the Republic of Moldova and this thing will be confirmed by the Constitutional Court as this will decide in favor of the CEC. “We ascertain the public death of democracy in the Republic of Moldova,” he stated.
Analyst Victor Ciobanu asked rhetorically who the sovereignty in this state belongs to. He said that before amending the Constitution and enshrining the European integration course in the Constitution, the current government will introduce an article similar to Article 6 of the Constitution of the Soviet Union, which said that the main role of organizer and manager is played by the party, which is the nucleus of the political system and administers everything in the country. The analyst noted he remembers how the system where all the decisions were taken by the party was and now this system is reproduced in the Tuesday’s meetings of the Democratic Party.
