{"id":443846,"date":"2017-05-14T16:42:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T16:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=443846"},"modified":"2017-05-15T17:26:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T17:26:18","slug":"thousands-protest-chisinau-mixed-electoral-system-proposed-democrats-socialists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/thousands-protest-chisinau-mixed-electoral-system-proposed-democrats-socialists\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands protested in Chi\u0219in\u0103u against mixed electoral system proposed by the Democrats and Socialists"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

May 14th:\u00a0Over one thousand people gathered in front of the Moldovan Parliament building in Chi\u0219in\u0103u to\u00a0express their discontent with the proposed mixed electoral system, voted in the first lecture by the Democrats and Socialists<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protest was initially announced by civil society organizations, who protested for the entire week, but then was joined by supporters and members of the extra-Parliamentary opposition parties like Action and Solidarity Party, Platform “Dignity and Truth”, “Our Party”, but also the still-Parliamentary Communists. Nevertheless, the political leaders or members of those parties did not give speeches and were instead replaced by civic activists, experts, singers and diaspora representatives.<\/p>\n

Participants and key speakers invoked two main reasons of protesting against the proposed mixed electoral system:<\/p>\n

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  • procedural questions- the draft law on the electoral system change, adopted by the Democrats and Socialists in the first lecture, was not reviewed by the responsible Juridical Commission and the Permanent Bureau of the Moldovan Parliament;<\/li>\n
  • risk-related questions- the mixed electoral system with single-member constituency MPs would not bring changes to their independence from interest groups and the party, the system would not work in the context of the current justice system in Moldova, the problem of vote fraud, voters’ corruption and media monopolization would not be solved etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Protesters brought up as an argument the recent action\u00a0of the European Parliament in making the disbursement of 100 million euros fund conditional<\/a> based on the democratic involvement of all political forces in making the electoral system change.<\/p>\n

    Some participants of the protests met difficulties at getting from regions to Chi\u0219in\u0103u by bus or train. The Moldovan Railways (CFM- C\u0103ile Ferate ale Moldovei)\u00a0canceled all<\/a> the local trains in Moldova, claiming that the “severe weather conditions” caused damages on the routes, even only two segments\u00a0(Bender-Chi\u0219in\u0103u, B\u0103l\u021ba\u021bi-C\u0103inari) were damaged. When the protest already started, at half past 12, CFM announced about resuming the route<\/a>s. Several public buses coming to Chi\u0219in\u0103u were stopped by the police and the National Agency for Auto Transportation for “irregular checks” of timetables, passenger load and ticketing. According to Ziarul de Gard\u0103, some drivers complained<\/a> that they got fines and had to delay the routes.<\/p>\n