CHIŞINĂU (Imedia) - Interim President Mihai Ghimpu (Liberal Party), Justice Minister Alexandru Tanase (Liberal Democratic Party), M.P. Aurel Baiesu (Democratic Party), and M.P. Ion Plesca (the Moldova Noastra [Our Moldova] Alliance) headed for Strasbourg on May 4, where they will meet with Gianni Buquicchio, the head of the Venice Commission, along with other European officials.
Mr. Ghimpu said that Alliance for European Integration (AEI) representatives will speak with Mr. Buquicchio about the two different proposals to change Article 78 in the Constitution, which regulates the election of the head of state.
The Party of Communists (PC) proposed that Parliament continue electing the President, while the AEI wants for the President to be elected via a direct vote.
„We would like to know what to do further. Should we just hold elections for the sake of elections? Early elections without changing the current mechanism to elect the President cannot take place," Mr. Ghimpu said during a TV program.
The interim President added that „the best version is for the President to be elected by the current Parliament and then, after all of the changes, we can have separate legislative and presidential elections."
Democratic Party head Marian Lupu said during the same show that „there are three possibilities until elections happen."
„First, which is very improbable, is to change Article 78 in the Constitution in Parliament. Second, changing this article by organizing a referendum. Third, which means continuing the stalemate, is going to early elections without changing Article 78 in the Constitution," Mr. Lupu added.
Commentary:
Vlad Lupan: Endless elections would favor the Party of Communists (PC)
Vlad Lupan, an independent expert, says that „the Venice Commission's acceptance or rejection of the attempt to change Article 78 in the Constitution via a referendum depends on the way in which the Chisinau delegation explains the situation in Moldova."
„It all depends on the unity of the message of the four parties in the Alliance," Mr. Lupan adds.
Mr. Lupan stresses that „basically, a referendum can be organized anyway, but the Electoral Code needs to be changed and certain clear provisions about the constitutional referendum needs to be included. So we need to have something that says that the Constitution will have to be changed depending on results."
„That would be a solution, but it is unclear whether the VC will accept these changes. If the Commission rejected them, there is only one solution - calling early elections. So then we'll keep having elections until we get a majority that will be able to change the Constitution in Parliament. For now, the stubbornness displayed by the Communists regarding overcoming the constitutional crisis does not show that there is a solution in the current Parliament. Endless elections would favor the Party of Communists because they are in the opposition and it is easier to get the public's support when you're in the opposition and carry no responsibility for governing. My concern is that these endless elections could lead to such an evolution," Mr. Lupan concludes.
Anatol Taranu: The Venice Commission has basically already expressed its viewpoint
Anatol Taranu, a political analyst, has reservations about the VC's approval of changing Article 78 via a referendum because „the Commission has basically already expressed its viewpoint - that early elections are inevitable."
„It is improbable that the Commission will change its viewpoint. But we should probably wait and see what the Alliance says in Strasbourg. I think that one of the arguments will be the intransigence of the Party of Communists, which is not tempted to move toward a friendly resolution of this legal conflict which Moldova has reached, and which is trying to use the situation created exclusively to achieve its own political ambitions," Mr. Taranu adds.
Mr. Taranu stresses that "the VC is guided exclusively by legal arguments and may not be able to accept arguments like that."
„Legal arguments say, however, that the only thing the current Parliament needs to do now is to call early elections. Even though we may be in the same situation after elections. But that's the law, and it needs to be respected. The only possibility for the political community to get out of the crisis is to convince the electorate enough to let them elect the head of state and then change the Constitution in Parliament," Mr. Turcanu concludes.
File:
It is still unclear how Article 78 in the Constitution could be changed via a referendum, considering the fact that legislative provisions in this case are rather confusing.
For example, Article 142 (1) in the current law says that the particular issues subject to a referendum include „dispositions about the sovereign, independent, and unitary character of the state, as well as articles regarding permanent neutrality."
At the same time, Article 143 says that „Parliament can adopt a law regarding changing the Constitution."
Article 143 (3) in the Electoral Code says that "documents adopted via a republican referendum [Imedia: one of the types of the republican referendum is the constitutional one] have legal power after they are confirmed by the Constitutional Court and apply to the entire territory of Moldova."
