Home > 1.3 Free suffrage > MOLDOVA- Joint Opinion on the Election Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 44
 

An amendment to Article 13(2)c excludes persons “convicted to deprivation of liberty”. An addition to Article 41 specifies that parties contesting the elections “may nominate for the electoral candidate their members and also persons without any political affiliation”. This provision must be read in conjunction with the prohibition on forming pre-electoral blocs and coalitions introduced by the amendments, since its rationale appears to be to avoid different political parties building de facto pre-electoral coalitions. While this is clearly consistent with the prohibition of pre-electoral blocs, such restrictions to political parties’ freedom to choose candidates on their lists is better avoided, even if it concerns other parties’ members. This would allow a party not running for a certain election to support another list, a move which should be permitted in particular when pre-electoral blocks are not allowed. If a person runs against his/her own party’s list, then it should be left to the discretion of the party to take action. As a matter of principle, parties running in an election should be able to compose their lists as they see fit.