Moldova: The Deal of Rival Political Forces or Electoral Reforms?

• 08.04.2017, 20:40
•  Europe

РИА Новости

Political passions are again exacerbated in Moldova. This time Moldova has appeared in the center of attention as it wants to switch to a mixed electoral system.

The adoption of the law brought controversies. The country's parliament and the president are for it, while the extra-parliamentary opposition is against and state that they do not intend to stop the demonstrations. They promised that the rallies will also take place on August 27, the day of Moldova's independence, and in mid-September the most massive protests in recent years will be organized, Regnum reports. It should be reminded that the last demonstration took place on July 30 during which demonstrators gathered near the office of the Socialist Party and demanded the resignation of President Igor Dodon, who until 2016, when became the President of the country, headed the party.

As it has already been mentioned, the cause for the current wave of demonstrations in Moldova was the reform of the electoral system, according to which the country is moving to a mixed electoral system. The non-parliamentary opposition thinks that the transition to the mixed system is in favor of the Socialist and strong anti-Russian Democratic parties, so that they can hold power in the upcoming parliamentary elections in November 2018.

The Moldovan parliament consists of 101 members of six parties. The Democratic Party has the most seats in the Parliament (41 MPs), while the Socialist Party is on the second place (24 MPs). Formerly, Moldova's parliamentary elections were held through a common national constituency. With the new electoral system, the original concept is maintained, with 6% threshold. However, after the transition to the new system, 50 of the 101 parliamentarians of the Moldovan parliament will be elected from the party lists, 51 of them with the majoritarian system. The winners will be those MPs, who will receive the majority of votes.

It should be noted that there are certain disagreements over the terms of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Moldovan Liberal MP Lilian Karp claims that the next parliamentary elections will take place not in November of the current year, but in early 2019 as it is impossible to organize extraordinary elections in the current situation, Tribuna.md reports. It should be noted that the leader of the Communist Party Vladimir Voronin also expressed an opinion that changes in the electoral system will bring a number of problems, including the term of holding elections. He added that perhaps the opposition parties will boycott the elections.

The inner-political developments in Moldova are also at the attention of the outside world. The US declared that it is disappointed by the Moldovan authorities’ decision to carry out reforms in the electoral system, as they question the authorities' promise of a democratic and European future for Moldovan citizens. The EU, in its turn, also criticized, saying that it will closely monitor the developments, including in the context of providing financial assistance to Chisinau, the agreement reached on the condition of maintaining democratic mechanisms, including multilateralism and the rule of law.

Despite the EU and US criticisms, Moldovan President Igor Dodon has earlier claimed that with the adoption of the law on elections, "a new chapter opens in the modern history of Moldova."

The whole turmoil began with the fact that the largest Democratic Party in the Moldovan parliament proposed to change the law on elections by switching to the majoritarian electoral system. However, Dodon offered to establish a mixed electoral system. Finally, 74 out of 101 parliamentarians voted for the proposal.

It is not ruled out that the adoption of the law is merely a compromise between political forces and in reality the Democratic Party is not going to abandon the approval of the majoritarian electoral system. This is evidenced by the fact that the leader of the Democratic Party earlier stated that the 2018 parliamentary elections will be held in a mixed system, after which the citizens will understand the advantages of the majoritarian system and the electoral system will be accepted in Moldova in 2022.

The date of the law approval is also noteworthy. It was adopted on the eve of closing the session of the parliament, and many things during the holidays may be forgotten and the passions in society and non-parliamentary opposition will calm down. However, it is not excluded that the change of the electoral system will also lead to certain steps by international institutions, such as imposing sanctions or not providing financial support.