President Dodon promulgated the law to cancel mixed electoral system
President Igor Dodon promulgated the law which provides for the cancellation of the mixed voting system and the return to the proportional electoral system on party lists. The announcement was made by the head of state on social networks, who said he made it in an emergency.
Although Igor Dodon was one of the promoters of the mixed voting system, he now argues that it needs to be canceled according to the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the development partners of our country.
The legislature voted yesterday, with 59 votes, in the final reading the cancellation of the mixed electoral system and approved the return to the proportional one. The amendments to the Electoral Code also provide for the return to the day of silence before the elections.
Also, the prohibitions on how to vote in the diaspora were excluded. Moldovan citizens living abroad will be able to exercise their right to vote on the basis of identity cards and expired passports.
Parliament also changed the electoral threshold for parties to five percent, instead of six percent as it is now, and for electoral blocks of 7 percent, instead of eight. For the independent candidates, the threshold of two percent remained.
The draft law on the mixed voting system was adopted, in 2017, by the PDM and PSRM deputies. The procedure provided that 50 deputies are elected on party lists, and 51 - directly by the people, in uninominal constituencies.
For the first time, the mixed system was applied to the parliamentary elections on February 24 this year. The proportional voting system, which was implemented in our country until 2014, provides for the election of 101 MPs on party lists.