January 3 (SeeNews) - Moldova's Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that president Igor Dodon can be temporarily suspended from office after he refused to swear in several ministers.
The president's repeated refusal to make appointments based on nominations by the prime minister constitutes a violation of his constitutional obligations and oath, according to the court ruling published on its website.
Consequently, either the president of the parliament or the prime minister will act as interim president with the right to sign the decrees appointing the ministers, the court added.
On Tuesday, Dodon dismissed the ruling of the court, claiming that it is acting as a political tool.
In December, Moldova's ruling Democratic Party (PDM) decided to replace seven of 13 government ministers in an attempt to set up a cabinet comprising mostly technocrats. It came up with politically unaffiliated nominations for ministers of health, justice, European integration, economy, reintegration, agriculture and foreign affairs.
Svetlana Cebotari, currently head of the National Centre for Blood Transfusions, was proposed for minister of health, labour and social protection minister, while former Constitutional Court president Alexandru Tanase was nominated for justice minister. Iurie Leanca, a former prime minister and currently deputy speaker of parliament, was designated as deputy prime minister and minister for European integration. Another former prime minister, Chiril Gaburici, was proposed as minister of economy and deputy prime minister. Cristina Lesnic, a former head of the European integration section at the ministry of international cooperation and European integration was proposed for the positions of deputy prime minister and minister of reintegration. The rector of the Agrarian University, Liviu Volconovici, was nominated for agriculture minister, while Tudor Ulianovschi, the Moldovan ambassador to Geneva, was to head the foreign ministry.
According to the country's constitution, the new members of the cabinet must be endorsed by president Dodon. However, Dodon at the time announced that he will not sign the appointment decrees as some of the nominees "have been politically compromised".
In mid-October, the constitutional court ruled that Dodon can be suspended from office after he refused twice to swear in a new defence minister proposed by PDM. Based on the court ruling, on October 24 a new defence minister was appointed despite Dodon's protests.
Currently, PDM is the biggest force in Moldova's 101-seat parliament, with 41 MPs. The Socialist Party (PSRM) is the second biggest party with 24 seats, followed by the Liberal Party (PL) and the European Parliamentary Group with ten MPs each, the Communist Party with seven deputies, the PLDM with five seats, and four independents.
(1 euro = 20.4104 Moldovan lei)