Moldovan top court says speaker's election legal

September 10, 2009

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Mihai Ghimpu, the leader of the Liberal Party, was elected speaker in line with the constitution. The Constitutional Court reached this conclusion on Wednesday, Sept 9.

After a four-hour sitting and almost one hour of deliberation, the judges of the Constitutional Court decided to close down the examination of a complaint submitted by the Communist Party. Three judges voted in favour and the other three against. So, in conditions of parity, the non-Communist majority coalition Alliance for European Integration was awarded victory. Thus, the court ascertained today that Mihai Ghimpu was legally elected to serve as speaker at the parliamentary meeting on 28 August, when he was supported by the 53 MPs of the Alliance for European Integration after the Communists walked out of the chamber. Subsequently they appealed to the court, saying t! hat the meeting held in their absence was illegal.

Nicolae Railean, judge of the Constitutional Court: "The court recorded parity of votes, consequently, the contested normative acts are presumed as constitutional and the examination of the case is ceased."

In another report, ProTV showed Communist MP Vladimir Turcan saying that the Communist faction will abide by the court's decision and will continue its work in parliament. Pro TV also featured Ghimpu saying, "This decision should unite us, it should gather us all at a plenary meeting in order to start our work and solve problems as citizens are expecting us to".

Pro TV, Moldovan private TV company