alegeri.md

On October 1, 2010 the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova publishes a letter addressed by the Constitutional Court to the Parliament on the shortcomings found in the electoral legislation with regard to democratic referendums. The Court states that legislation should contain explicit norms concerning:

• equality between supporters and opponents of the proposal submitted to vote, including the referendum campaign;
• free formation of the electorate’s will, to this end, neutrality of public authorities so as not to influence the outcome of the referendum, the ban on using public funds for campaigning purposes, including sanctioning the cases when authorities violate their duty of neutrality and freedom of forming the electorate’s will;
• effects of the referendum, which should be stated expressly in the Constitution (constitutional referendum) or in law (for all types). The current and further procedure of decision-making referendums needs to be materialized through legally binding provisions.

Although the Electoral Code contains some provisions relating to the aspects mentioned in the Constitutional Court’s opinion, the relevant compartments do not contain full and clear rules on referendums that would comply with the Code of Good Practices on Referendums, adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections at its 19th meeting on 16.12.2006 and by the Venice Commission at its 70th plenary session on 16–17 March 2007. Constitutional Court requests the Parliament to consider its opinion and inform the Court about the decision within the time under the law.