16
TĂNASE v. MOLDOVA JUDGMENT
“(1) Candidates for the office of MP shall be at least 18 years old on the day of the
elections, shall have Moldovan citizenship, shall live in the country and shall fulfil the
conditions provided for in the present code.
(2) At the moment of registering as a candidate, any person holding the citizenship
of another country shall declare that he or she holds another citizenship or that he or
she has applied for another citizenship.
(3) At the time of validation of the MP mandate, the person indicated in
paragraph (2) shall prove with documents that he or she has renounced or initiated the
procedure of renunciation of the citizenship of other States or that he or she has
withdrawn an application to obtain another citizenship.
(4) A failure to declare the fact of holding another citizenship at the moment of
registering as a candidate for the office of MP or the fact of obtaining another
citizenship during the exercise of an MP mandate, shall be sufficient grounds for the
Constitutional Court to annul the MP mandate at the request of the Central Electoral
Commission.”
80. The position of Transdniestria is set out in section 21 of the Law:
“ ...
(3) The incompatibilities provided for in the present Law shall apply to persons
living in Transdniestria only in so far as they are stipulated in the legislation
concerning the special legal status of Transdniestria.”
81. Limited parliamentary debate took place on this particular provision
of the Law. The only relevant extract, from the plenary parliament debates
on 7 December 2007, is as follows:
“Vladimir Braga, MP:
The citizens who are citizens of the Republic of Moldova and live in Transdniestria
will continue to have double nationality and then the effectiveness of the Law is
marginalised, or, to put it better, we reject the citizens from Transdniestria, who are
also citizens of the Republic of Moldova.
Vladimir Ţurcan, MP:
Not at all. There is one thing which has to be understood: firstly, this Law does not
apply to all citizens. Secondly, it refers only to those who have positions in public
authorities. Thirdly, we deliberately inserted here a clause in the final and transitional
provisions: I draw your attention to the fact that the third paragraph refers to persons
who live and work in the respective authorities of the left bank, in Transdniestria, that
this Law does not apply in this case to the said persons and that it will only be applied
[to them] in so far as this is provided for in the Law concerning the special status of
Transdniestria.”