Moldovan parliament to approve majority electoral system in September at the latest - speaker
CHISINAU. May 5 (Interfax) - Speaker of the Moldovan parliament Andrian Candu has told journalists that the majority electoral system will be approved in September at the latest, a year before the parliamentary election.
"Experts of the Council of Europe Venice Commission are arriving next week. In June we expect the commission's opinion on our bill and are ready to approve the document in the first reading. We don't have much time left because the next parliamentary election is due at the end of 2018 and the change in legislation on elections should be completed no later than a year before the election. We will fit in the timeframe," Candu said on Friday.
He said that the Democratic Party's initiative on the introduction of voting by single-seat districts "was discussed by society, which supports direct elections to parliament." "The Democratic Party is determined to go all the way and introduce the single-seat system of elections, which many parties promised to do," Candu said.
"The mixed electoral system proposed by President Igor Dodon and Socialists is not clear to the people. All this is being done to sow uncertainty and complicate the process of modifying the electoral system. They have already complicated the work of parliament and the work of the Venice Commission which will have to consider two projects of changing the electoral system in Moldova instead of one," Candu said.
He said that the Democratic Party will not give in to the pressure on the part of the Socialists who even threaten to boycott the election.
"It is their business. If the Socialist Party does not want to take part in the election, let them do so. Probably we will even be glad and get a more comfortable majority. In the future election Socialists count precisely on elections by party tickets. They count on succeeding thanks to the party name and its promises but they are afraid of voting by districts," Candu said.
At the beginning of last April the Democratic Party of Moldova submitted to parliament a bill on changing the electoral system from proportionate to majority. All key political forces strongly spoke against it. To prevent the transition to elections by single-seat districts President Dodon and the presidential Socialist Party came up with the initiative of a transition to a mixed electoral system. It is also being criticized by all other parties, including the Democratic Party.
Experts of the Venice Commission are coming to Chisinau next week for consultations on these issues with the Moldovan leadership and key political forces. The commission should give its opinion of changes in the Moldovan electoral system at its session scheduled for June 16.