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The rationale behind the idea of a single presidential decree

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October 10, 2016
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The “Our Moldova” Party (PN) candidate for the Presidential office, Dumitru Ciubasenco, entered the presidential race in order to get the public mandate to dissolve the Parliament and call early parliamentary elections. In fact, this is the essence of the single presidential decree, idea that Dumitru Ciubasenco formulated in an article published on May 30, 2016. As the leaders of the three anti-oligarchic, protesting parties could not ignore the geopolitical factor and reach a compromise on a common candidate, Dumitru Ciubasenco accepted to try realize his own idea on PN platform.

The single presidential decree aims to initiate the resetting of the entire government. PN candidate offers a “contract” to voters. The subject of the “contract” is to get rid of the current political class, which is considered hopelessly corrupt by both the society and the candidate. PN candidate presented the rationale of his electoral offer in social, political, legal, doctrinal and procedural terms, emphasizing that his actions will be legal and with respect of the fundamental human rights.

  1. Sociological arguments. In the last 7 years of the current governing class, the number of citizens who believe that for socio-economic changes it is necessary to change the government, increased 4 times, reaching 70%. People’s desire to change the government is confirmed by the fact that over 80% of citizens consider that things move in the wrong direction and the confidence in key public institutions dropped to 5–10%. These estimates are consistent with the most recent survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI).

  2. Political arguments relate the current situation in Moldova, perceived and expressed by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, in the article “Bring Moldova back from the brink”, published last year in The New York Times. PN candidate considers that the arguments as well as the high position of the leader of the most respected and prestigious European institution, specialized in promoting democracy and human rights, are more than sufficient in order to deem as real the danger of state institutions being captured by corrupt oligarchic structures. The opinion of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe is supported by concrete documents such as the Secret Protocol where leaders of the so-called Alliance for European Integration (AEI) have divided among them the key state institutions for personal and clan enrichment. An additional proof in this regard are May 7, 2015 parliamentary hearings, when high rank officials responsible for regulation and supervision of the banking system as well as for fighting corruption admitted that they knew and monitored the theft of the century, but they have not dared to act to counter it. This can be explained only by the fact that they did not want to disturb the plans of the political leaders who put them in office. Supporting this conclusion is the data from the published protocol of the secret Government session of March 27, 2015. Considering all this, the PN candidate for the Presidential office, has committed to his voters as well as to the development partners to implement the recommendation of the General Secretary of the Council of Europe — to free state institutions from the oligarchs’ control.

  3. The political and legal arguments of the PN candidate with regard to the single presidential decree is the lack of legitimacy of the current government. In this regard, the PN candidate points to the distortion of the representation of citizens:

    • first distortion in the current legislative representative character occurred even before its creation, when three days prior to the November 30, 2014 parliamentary elections, PN was removed from the electoral race based on invented pretexts. Subsequently, all allegations made by the authorities in order to justify the removal of the PN from the race have been dismissed, PN having won all court hearings on this matter. Furthermore, ECHR admitted two pleas by PN against Moldova on these cases. PN candidate believes that from this point of view, the validation by the Constitutional Court (CC) of the 2014 election results was illegal given the fact that CC view on the reported violations, including the elimination of PN from the electoral competition, did not affect the final result, does not correspond to reality. Contrary to the views of the CC, after half a year, in local elections PN reconfirmed over 10% popular support. PN candidate believes that the Constitutional Court should reconsider the results of parliamentary elections in 2014 in the same way it has reconsidered the constitutional reform of year 2000, 16 years after;
    • The second argument for the Parliament’s lack of legitimacy is that in the eve of the parliamentary elections of November 30, 2014 the ruling parties have adopted a series of secret decisions and have hidden information with regard to the theft of a billion dollars, which have hit hard the country’s economy and wellbeing. If the information about the theft of the century would have been made public before the parliamentary elections of 30 November 2014, then the reactions of citizens, their protests would have taken place simultaneously with the electoral campaign. Their impact on the parliamentary representation can be inferred based on the results of the opinion polls conducted during years 2015 and 2016;
    • The third argument on the lack of legitimacy of the current parliament refers to the double distortion of representativeness — MP’s frequent changing their party membership. It is impossible now to answer the question — whom does the largest parliamentary “faction” represents? If at least 10% of voters are not represented in the legislative body as a result of PN elimination from the electoral race and 41 of the members are part of the parliamentary opposition, what is the legitimacy of the parliamentary majority? It is obvious that the source of their legitimacy is the corruption of 27 MP’s that have changed sides. In this context, it is noteworthy that the current parliamentary majority consistently refuses to condemn political corruption, as fearful of undermining their own existence. According to Article 38 (1) of the Constitution: “The will of the people is the foundation of power of the state”. And MP switching sides as a result of political corruption definitely do not represent people’s will. Therefore, the only legal and legitimate solution for “bringing back Moldova from the brink” and giving back the power to the people is is the dissolution of Parliament and early elections.

  4. The legal arguments for escaping the state from “oligarchic captivity” are based on constitutional powers and the rule of law — developed in the Constitutional Court ruling of April 22, 2013. In this regard, PN candidate for President aims to use as future President of the country all his constitutional powers to ensure state security. If elected as the head of state, commander of the Armed Forces, Chairman of the Supreme Security Council, the PN candidate will further present arguments and official evidence on the captive nature of state institutions. Besides the express powers of the President, the PN candidate will make use of the provisions of Article 87 of the Constitution: “The President may take other steps to ensure national security and public order within the limits and under the law”. And these additional measures will result only from the judgment of the Constitutional Court of 22/04/2013. Below are presented the main considerations put forward by the Constitutional Court based on international documents and doctrine:

    • CC pointed out that the rule of law is referred as supreme value in the Preamble of the Constitution. The Preamble has a key role in understanding and applying the text of the Constitution and may be invoked as a source of law… and when there are multiple interpretations — the option according to the Preamble prevails;
    • CC highlighted the following: corruption undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, undermines the economy and erodes the quality of life. Therefore, the fight against corruption is part of the measures for ensuring the respect for rule of law;
    • CC mentioned as a principle, that any political mandate should be based on people’s trust and their representatives. In a true democracy is a normality the immediate resignation of those who have lost public confidence, without getting to dismissals;
    • CC mentioned as principle, that the rule of law is not fiction. The rule of law must be manifested through practical actions;
    • CC mentioned that, in compliance with the constitutional principle of the rule of law and taking into account the general interest of citizens, it is imperative to take the necessary measures to ensure rapid suspension from office or resignation of ministers and other high level officials subjected to reasonable doubts concerning their integrity.

    PN candidate believes valid and other strong arguments of the Constitutional Court which refers to fighting corruption in public institutions, inclusively in the case of the Parliament, which does not enjoy public confidence (5–10%), has a distorted representation and is based on political corruption. Therefore, having people’s mandate to fight corruption and illegalities, in the condition of a distorted Parliament and political corruption, the elected President will impose the normality required by the Constitutional Court through the dissolution of the Parliament.

  5. The doctrinaire arguments of PN candidate for President of the Republic of Moldova refer to the fact that modern constitutional doctrine lists seven fundamental reasons for dissolving parliaments. One of the reasons is the dissolution of the Parliament in order to return popular mandate support to the government. This argument is used when a parliamentary majority loses public confidence due to corruption scandals which cause economic crises. The head of the state, mandated by voters, has a fundamental role in this sense.

  6. Procedural arguments refer to strict adherence to the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Moldova. In the event of accession to the position of President of the country, PN candidate intends to convene the Supreme Security Council to officially substantiate his decree for dissolving the Parliament. In the event of sabotage by the captured the state institutions, no one and no domestic or foreign force will be able to convince the head of state, which is mandated by the people to dissolve the Parliament, to enact a law adopted by a parliament that lacks legitimacy, as shown in the above arguments. In such circumstances, the captured state institution and the people behind the curtain are to be blamed for an eventual political and constitutional crisis. If it comes to this kind of crisis, it will be overcome through early parliamentary or presidential elections, in which the sovereign people will have to reconfirm its sovereignty, and the international public opinion its support for “bringing back Moldova from the brink”.

Messages and priorities of the pro Eurasians Electoral platform of politicians promoting re-unification with Romania