CHISINAU (Sputnik) — Around 2,000 people gathered near the building of the country's parliament in the capital of Chisinau at a rally against the reform. The protest participants brought state flags of Moldova as well as posters without any party symbols depicted on them. The rally was supported by the extra-parliamentary forces.
"No violations have been registered. The public order was secured by the sufficient number of the law enforcement representatives. We are analyzing the data on how many people took part in the protest in Chisinau," a police source said.
Despite the rally was declared as a civilian action, several leaders of the political forces, including head of the Dignity and Truth Platform Party Andrei Nastase, gave speeches during the protest.
The protesters were holding the posters with various slogans including "Snap Election," "No to Growth of Tariffs" and "Dodon Stand With the People." The activists are chanting "We are People," "We Change Law," Do Not Lie to Us Through TV," and "We are Right."
The survey showed that the Moldovan citizens support holding the snap general election and canceling the legislation amending the Electoral Code, Igor Botan, one of the protests' organizers and CEO of Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT), said.
The rallies supporting the mixed-member proportional representation were also held in several Moldovan cities.
In April, Moldova’s ruling Democratic Party submitted a bill to change the electoral system to a single-mandate voting system. In response to the criticism of the move by other political forces, President Igor Dodon proposed to switch to a mixed-member proportional representation voting system. The proposal was subsequently approved by Moldova's parliament and sent to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for the revision.
