PSRM Wants to Return the Right to the President to Be a Party Member

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The PSRM wants to change the Electoral Code by returning the right to be a party member to the head of state. PSRM MP Vasile Bolea registered a legislative initiative in the parliament proposing to change the provision of the Electoral Code, which does not allow the President of Moldova to be a member of any political party, unimedia.info writes. In particular, MP Vasile Bolea referred to annulling a paragraph of article 123 of the Electoral Code, which provides that, before the mandate is approved, a candidate elected as President of the Republic of Moldova must submit to the Constitutional Court confirmation that he is not a member of any party and does not hold any public or private position. Bolea believes that this rule violates constitutional norms on freedom of association. Thus, according to Art. 41 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, "citizens are free to unite in parties and other public and political organizations. They contribute to the determination and expression of the political will of citizens in accordance with the law, and participate in elections." Recall that this is not the first attempt by a PSRM deputy to amend article 123 of the Electoral Code. On December 13, 2017, the Constitutional Court rejected the request of the deputy from the PSRM, Vlad Batrincea, and established that the mandate of the President of the Republic is incompatible with membership in any political party. The court did not accept Vlad Batrincea's argument in the request that the president of the country should be admitted to membership in the party, similarly to members of parliament and government. The court noted that they are in different legal situations and that the criterion of "political neutrality" cannot be applied to members of parliament and the government in the same way as it applies to the president of a country, given that deputies and members of the government, by definition, cannot be politically neutral. Having taken the oath of the President of the Republic of Moldova, he assumes legal obligations to all the people of the Republic of Moldova. Thus, the president of the republic must prove his impartiality and political neutrality, the Constitutional Court says. The court also emphasized that the head of state plays the role of arbiter or neutral authority, being separated from political parties. The president is an important element of the political system, but he should not be a political partisan.