Moldova's ruling coalition advocates direct voting to elect president
The ruling Alliance for European Integration (AIE) is discussing the opportunity to amend the constitution so that the head of state should be elected by people via direct voting.
The first deputy chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM), Mihai Godea, has told MOLDPRES that the AIE will propose that the constitution should be amended by the parliament. Given the fact that the initiative needs 67 votes to be passed, the PLDM "advocates the continuation of the dialogue with the opposition Communists in line with the best European practices," Godea said.
Godea said that it is useless to discuss whether the PCRM had had the right to withdraw its draft amendments to Article 78 of the Moldovan constitution, which provided for a three-round presidential election procedure, with the number of votes falling from 61 in the first round to 52 in the last round. "If the parliament does not consider some draft during a year, it is automatically turned down," he explained.
In 2010, the Constitutional Court gave the go ahead to both the Communists' draft and the draft of the ruling alliance, that provided for nationwide presidential polls. The AIE held a referendum on the matter on 5 September, but it failed because of the low voter turnout.
"The AIE's draft on the amendment of the constitution is in the parliament and under certain circumstances, it might be a way out of the political deadlock," Mihai Godea said.
Given the fact that no parliamentary party has the necessary 61 votes to elect the president, the leader of the Democratic Party, Marian Lupu said on 2 February that the parliament might consider the PCRM's draft, but the Communists withdrew it several hours afterwards. Presently, the ruling coalition is trying to persuade the opposition Communists to vote for the amendment of Article 78 of the Moldovan constitution, so as to elect the president by direct voting.
Moldpres
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