New Moldovan parliament will convene for first plenary meeting on December 28
Moldova's Acting President Mihai Ghimpu signed a Presidential Decree on convening the new Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on the Tuesday of December 28.
Last Friday night, the Constitutional Court approved the results of the November 28 parliamentary elections and recognized the plenary powers of new parliamentary deputies. According to the official results of the elections, the Communist Party received 677,069 votes (39.73%) and has thus won 42 mandates in the 101-member Parliament of Moldova, the Liberal Democratic Party - 506,253 votes (29.7%, 32 mandates), the Democratic Party - 218,620 votes (12.82%, 15 mandates), and the Liberal Party - 171,336 votes (10.05%, 12 mandates).
According to the law, since the moment of recognition of new deputies' mandates and signature of the Presidential Decree on convocation of the new Parliament's first plenary meeting, the previous Parliament loses its plenary powers.
In conformity with parliamentary rules of procedure, the first plenary meeting is chaired by the forum's oldest member - in this particular instance this will be Moldova's former President, Chairman of the Moldovan Communist Party (MCP) Vladimir Voronin, who will mark his 70th birthday anniversary in May 2011. Tomorrow, Voronin will open the assembly and will give floor to the Chairpersons of the Central Election Commission and the Constitutional Court, who will read out their bodies' decisions on election result recognition and approval of the deputies' parliamentary mandates. Then the Constitutional Court Chairman will hand in the mandates to the newly elected deputies.
Since that moment, the new Parliament will be considered as officially formed, and deputies will proceed to the election of a new Speaker of the Parliament, who will begin his or her presidency immediately upon election. During the same meeting, the Parliament will elect Deputies Speakers, and proceed to forming parliamentary factions [groups] and Standing Committees.
It well may happen so that the much-spoken governing coalition will not yet be formed by the first plenary meeting. In such case, the forum will announce a break in its regular work, which, with an account of the New Year and old-style Orthodox Christmas approaching, may be continued already on January 10 or even later.
At one of the subsequent plenary meetings, the forum will elect a presidential election commission, after which the deputies will proceed to secret electing of the head of state. According to the law, President is elected by minimum 61 votes - three-fifths of the Parliament strength.
New President, upon consultations with parliamentary factions, nominates a candidacy for Prime Minister and authorizes the candidate to form Government. The Parliament eventually puts the Government formation question to the vote, and, if everything goes smoothly, the forum votes trust in the Prime Minister, without discussing the candidacies he has selected into his team as ministers and heads of essential structures.
It is fairly probable that the deputies will be long discussing a candidacy for president, and may decide to put the presidential election procedure off for some time. In such case, the candidacy for Prime Minister will be proposed by the Speaker, who will be acting as a head of state until the election of President.
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