January 16 (SeeNews) - Moldova's liberal party (PL) leader Mihai Ghimpu said on Monday that the party will seek support in parliament to initiate president Igor Dodon's suspension for allegedly breaching the country's constitution.
According to Ghimpu, by congratulating the leader of the self proclaimed separatist region of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselski, on his victory in the December elections, Dodon broke two articles of the constitution which stipulate that the president is the guarantor of Moldova's national sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity.
"No one, not even the president of Russia, ever congratulated a president illegally elected in Transnistria. This is the first time in Moldova's history when this happens," Ghimpu said in a televised conference aired on local station Realitatea Moldova.
With a population of 505,153, Transnistria is a partially recognised state located mostly on a strip of land between the River Dniester and the eastern Moldovan border with Ukraine. It broke away from Moldova in the 1990s and its inhabitants speak Russian and identify themselves as Russians.
During his campaign, Dodon said he plans to end the conflict in Moldova's Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria and unify the region with Moldova.
Ghimpu was Moldova's interim president from September 2009 to December 2010.
"Under the Constitution, the initiation of suspension proceedings can be done with the signatures of one-third of MPs, i.e. 34 MPs. We do not have 34 MPs in our faction, but we are initiating this procedure in the hope that our colleagues in parliament will support us. If we don't stop Dodon's unconstitutional activity, things can get more complicated," Ghimpu added.
The largest political force in Moldova's current 101-seat parliament elected in 2014 is an alliance formed by the Democratic Party (PD) with 20 seats and by PL with 13 representatives. Ghimpu said he has not yet discussed the matter with PD, but that he will formally ask for their support.
Moldova's Socialist Party (PSRM) is the second biggest party in parliament with 24 seats, followed by the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) with 10 seats, the Communist Party with 7 MPs and 27 independent deputies.
Ex-PSRM leader leader Dodon won the presidential election, defeating his pro-European rival Maia Sandu, leader of pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), in the runoff vote held on November 13.
The tiny landlocked ex-Soviet state of Moldova has a population of some 3 million people has strong historical and political ties with its western neighbour Romania, with more than 75% of the population speaking Romanian.