Venice Commission comes up with new recommendations for Moldovan leadership

Chisinau, 19 December /MOLDPRES/ - The Venice Commission has issued a new opinion on the restrictions to put forward the candidacies, imposed to the members of the parties declared unconstitutional.   

In the document issued today, the Commission says that the latest legislative amendments adopted by the Moldovan parliament on the ineligibility of the people related to the political parties declared unconstitutional impose excessive restrictions to the right to run in elections. The document referred to the decision by the Commission for Emergency Situations (CSE), under which all members of the Chance Party were banned from participating in the local elections.    

The Venice Commission came up with more recommendations to remedy the deficiencies identified: to define more accurately the criteria for restricting the right to be elected, through the removal of a vague and wide terminology.  

At the same time, the Commission draws the attention of Moldova’s leadership to the fact that ‘’the amendment of the electoral legislation while the electoral processes are underway is usually aimed at manipulating the electoral process, in order to favour interests, except for the case when it has a legitimate fundamental predominant interest, such as the protection of elections’ integrity.’’   

The Venice Commission’s opinion was worked out by the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), within the Partnership for Good Governance joint programme of the European Union and Council of Europe.