The Venice Commission and ODIHR therefore recommend to the Moldovan authorities, if they wish to prevent certain members of political parties declared unconstitutional from standing as candidates in elections:
• to define the criteria for restrictions of the right to be elected more precisely and narrowly, in conformity with the principles of legal certainty and of proportionality, by removing the possibility to apply ineligibility to “suspected, accused or indicted” persons (first sub-item of Article 16(2)(f)) and other vague and broad terminology (second, third and fourth sub-items of Article 16(2)(f)), while limiting restrictions of this right to individuals whose activities have endangered the Constitution and the integrity of the democratic State, through their actions and expressions, and/or actively pursued the (illegal) goals of the unconstitutional parties;
• to require the authorities to demonstrate, by providing sufficient and relevant evidence, that a person meets the conditions and criteria of Article 16(2)(f) and has actively contributed to the illegitimate acts attributed to the political party that led to the declaration of unconstitutionality and preferably have this established by a court;
• to provide individuals with a genuine opportunity before the electoral bodies with a reasonable burden of proof that allows the individuals to refute the presumption about their individual involvement in the parties activities that led to it being found unconstitutional.