The political arena of Moldova was privatized and those who want now to assert themselves at political level so as to come to power have no chance, consider members of the Center for Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring, who presented a set of proposals for correcting the current system so that new forces that aim to promote and protect the national interests enter the political arena.

The Center’s head Ion Dron, in a news conference at IPN on October 19, said that during the last five years the political arena has been closed, controlled and dominated by parties that pretend to be arguing between them and cooperate in secret when they need to appropriate public funds or to promote party interests. To ensure the basic rights enshrined in the Constitution are really respected, the legal provisions saying that 4,000 signatures should be collected for registering a political party must be annulled.

The NGO also suggests annulling the obligation to set up party organizations in each district. Ion Dron said that in most of the cases, those who want to found a party do not have money for maintaining these local organizations. Also, being at the initial stage, they probably do not have many supporters. In many European states, the legislation allows creating parties with three people only.

The Center’s members also suggest amending the Electoral Code and reducing the electoral threshold for entering Parliament to 3% for parties and to 0.5% for independent candidates. It is also proposed reducing the number of signatures needed for running as an independent for mayor of Chisinau from 10,000 to 3,000 and decreasing the threshold for entering the local council for independents to 1%.

Another proposal is to amend the legislation on the status of MP so as to annul parliamentary immunity. It is also suggested instituting criminal punishment for violating the electoral campaigning rules and the Broadcasting Code provisions concerning the observance of sociopolitical pluralism and balance in election campaigns. A request is that the public broadcaster should provide airtime for representatives of public associations and extraparliamentary parties, by one hour a week.

The members of the Center for Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring called on the nongovernmental organizations, extraparliamentary parties and the academic and scientific communities to support this initiative and to join them in formulating a common appeal to the Government and Parliament. The Center is waiting for proposals on the telephone number 37369122510 or on the email addresses cimap@gmail.com and idron@zahoo.com until October 25.