Batrincea: Amendments to the Electoral Code Should Be Widely Discussed

Vlad Batrincea, vice-speaker of the Parliament, executive secretary of PSRM, demanded that two draft amendments to the Electoral Code be removed from the agenda of the last plenary sessions of the Parliament. The MP stressed that the amendments are extremely important and as a result they need to be widely discussed with the civil society, experts, parties and politicians, both parliamentary and non-parliamentary, a-tv.md reports with reference to socialistii.md Vlad Batrincea drew attention to the fact that one of the drafts provides for new norms absent in the current practice of the Republic of Moldova. Among other things, the draft provides that elections may be held on a day other than Sunday. It also allows the elections to be held over two days, and introduces electronic voting, which creates problems for the security of the voting process itself. The second draft provides for reducing the number of members of the Central Election Commission, as a result of which the opposition is practically deprived of the right to be represented in the CEC. The deputy speaker reminded that, according to the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the Constitutional Court of RM, the laws adopted by the parliament should be predictable and applicable. “However, there are many questions about the proposed draft laws, and we risk to find ourselves in an unpleasant situation after their adoption,” said the socialist. Despite these arguments, the parliamentary majority left these amendments on the last parliamentary sessions’ agenda. Point