Press-release

Over the past days I have received dozens of messages via various private and public electronic means of communication, where I am personally asked to cancel the election results for the office of President of Moldova.

I would like to mention that although these messages are signed by different unknown individuals, their content is absolutely identical, all making an inadmissible resort to family matters, which have an absolutely private nature. Unfortunately, some of these messages have been covered by certain media outlets. This leads me to the conclusion of an orchestrated action and therefore I have informed the plenary of the Constitutional Court of Moldova on this.

Related to this situation, I consider it necessary to make the following clarifications:

1. I, the undersigned, Alexandru Tănase, declare that I am one of the six justices of the CCM. All decisions of the CCM are taken by the plenary of the CCM, and not by Alexandru Tănase. I would like to draw attention to the fact that the CCM plenary is composed of high-principled doctors of law, professors, and international justices, with high professional qualifications. The last justice appointed by the Government has been selected with the participation of the civil society of Moldova. Therefore, I consider as absolutely inappropriate the personal messages sent via private or public ways with requests that concern the exclusive competence of the plenary of the Constitutional Court.

2. Drawing from legal provisions, there explicitly results that all challenges on electoral violations are to be settled exclusively by the courts of law, as they do not fall within the competence of the Constitutional Court. In this regard, on 14 November 2016 the Court issued a press release: (http://constcourt.md/libview.php?l=ro&idc=7&id=904&t=/Media/Noutati/Comunicat-de-presa#sthash.tW99VyTf.dpuf). 

3. The Constitutional Court does not hold the necessary legal instruments for the adduction of evidence, hearing witnesses etc. These legal possibilities exist only in the courts of law. Pursuant to Article 4.3 of the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction, the Constitutional Court shall examine exclusively legal matters and not factual circumstances.

4. According to Article 135.e of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court confirms the results of the election of the President of Moldova. The confirmation of the election results takes place only following the exhaustion of all disputes in courts of law and only within the limits of the breaches found by the courts of law. Based on these findings, the Court is conferred the competence to assess whether these findings have substantially influenced the outcome of the elections.

5. I would like to draw attention of the competitors to the office of President of Moldova on the need to observe legal provisions on ways and deadlines for reporting and finding electoral violations, so that it would not render it impossible for the Court to consider them when adopting the solution on the confirmation/invalidation of the election results of the President of Moldova.

Alexandru Tănase