The Ministry of Justice has submitted to public consultation the draft Regulation on the activity of the National Commission for Establishing Permanent Uninominal Constituencies. The Commission is to be incorporated by a Government act under the recent electoral system change.

Under the proposed Regulation, the role of the Commission is to draw and establish the boundaries of 51 uninominal constituencies for legislative elections.

The Government is to appoint Commission members no later that 14 months before the term of Parliament expires, and the Commission will have no more than 13 months until the same deadline to draw the boundaries.

The Commission’s makeup will include two representatives from the Central Election Commission; one representative from Parliament’s Legal Commission, one from the President’s Office; one from each of the parliamentary groups and extra-parliamentary parties that polled 2% or more of the popular vote.

The Commission will also include three representatives of the legal, geography and sociology academia; two from the local authorities; one from both political parties with presidential candidates reaching the second round; one from the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia; from the ethnic minority groups with communities representing 1 percent of the population and larger; from the Diaspora Bureau; from civil society; and from the human rights working group of the National Participatory Council.

Non-voting delegates can be appointed for consultative purposes by the Reintegration Bureau, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Venice Commission.

The Commission’s affairs will be run by a president and a secretary selected by a majority of votes from among the Commission members.