Moldova Moves to Bar Unconstitutional Party Members from Elections
In a recent announcement during the "360 Degrees" show on Radio Moldova, Igor Grosu, the President of the Parliament, revealed that a legislative initiative would be registered in Parliament to bar members of parties declared unconstitutional from participating in elections.
This declaration follows last week's ruling by the High Court that deemed provisions of the Electoral Code, which forbid members of outlawed parties from contesting elections, unconstitutional. A law enforcing such regulations could potentially be reintroduced.
"We will revisit this issue carefully, analysing what the High Court has stated. We will return to this topic with legislative initiatives, adhering to the court's guidance on procedures to prevent bandits and organised criminal groups from participating. We will present all our details on how to prevent bandits from participating in the electoral process, just as we have banned and intervened with those restrictions. These are individuals who, by the decision of the Constitutional Court, have been declared criminals outside the law," stated Igor Grosu.
On March 26th, the High Court declared unconstitutional an article in the Electoral Code that prohibits individuals associated with outlawed political parties from participating in elections. This decision came following a submission to the Constitutional Court on October 16th, 2023, by a group of deputies from the former "Șor" party. This ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
The Constitutional Court justified its decision by citing multiple procedural violations. One of these violations related to the limited time provided to deputies to propose amendments to the bill for the first and second readings.
The "Șor" Party was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on June 19th, and a month later, Parliament passed a bill prohibiting members of executive bodies of unconstitutional parties and elected officials from these formations from participating in elections for a period of 5 years. On October 3rd, the Constitutional Court declared these legislative changes unconstitutional following a submission by former representatives of the "Șor" Party.
During the plenary session of Parliament on October 4th, deputies convened in an emergency session and made further amendments to the Electoral Code, based on the previous ruling of the High Court, despite ongoing local elections campaigns in the Republic of Moldova.
The new provisions stipulated that individuals "suspected, accused, or indicted of committing crimes mentioned in the declaration of the political party as unconstitutional" or those "directly involved in actions constituting arguments cited in the Constitutional Court's decision declaring the political party unconstitutional" cannot be admitted as candidates in elections.
These provisions were also contested at the Constitutional Court on August 4th, 2023, when five deputies from the former "Șor" party requested the High Court to examine the constitutionality of the law stipulating that members of political parties declared unconstitutional cannot be elected for a period ranging from three to five years.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
