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Transition to presidential republic to be initiated in Moldova soon

Dodon recalled that the Party of Socialists, which supports him, has gathered the signatures of 1.5 million voters in support of the initiative since last October

CHISINAU, May 5. /TASS/. A procedure of amending the Constitution will be launched in Moldova soon to enable a changeover to the presidential republic, President Igor Dodon told NTV Moldova channel on Friday.

"I think we’ll draft changes in legislation in the next few weeks," he said. "We need the signatures of a minimum of 34 parliament deputies and so far we’ve gotten 24 signatures. Then we’ll launch the process at the Constitution Court. It will take up six or so months."

Dodon recalled that the Party of Socialists, which supports him, has gathered the signatures of 1.5 million voters in support of the initiative since last October.

If the pro-European coalition that controls the majority of seats in the national parliament turns this proposal down, the Socialists will make the transition to the presidential republic the central item of their election campaign.

Analysts broadly view the Socialists as the most probable favorites for the parliamentary election scheduled for this autumn.

The standoff between the President who was elected by the nationwide vote, on the one hand, and the ruling pro-European parliamentary coalition and the government formed by the Democratic Party, on the other hand, continues for a whole twelve months. While the Democrats insist on continuation of the policy at European integration, Dodon speaks in favor of restoring strategic partnership with Russia and conducting a balanced foreign policy in the interests of the Moldovan state.

Tensions between the two branches of power peaked after a ruling by the Constitution Court that permitted to suspend the execution of presidential power provisionally if the President refused to sign laws or to appoint unpopular governmental functionaries.

In such cases, the presidential powers should go over the parliament speaker or the Prime Minister, who take on the duty to sign the appropriate documents.

Dodon called on the fellow-Moldovans to support the transition of the presidential form of rule as proposed by the Socialist Party. Alongside with it, he spoke against the appeals to organize mass protests against the government.

Instead, he called on his supporters to get ready for the parliamentary election in autumn so that the Party of Socialists could get the majority of seats in parliament and for a cabinet on its own.