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“Let’s Wait Till Friday.” The Terms of Office of Two BC Members Expired in Early April. Why Does the Profile Committee Not Announce the Contest?

14 April 2021
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The terms of office of two members of the Broadcasting Council (BC) expired on April 3, and another member’s term of office will expire at the end of the month. Therefore, in two weeks, the Board will have six members with full powers and three more whose mandates have expired. However, the parliamentary committee has not initiated the contest to get new members so far; the uncertainty about the fate of the legislative authority seems to be the most likely explanation.

The two members whose terms of office expired at the beginning of the month are Ion Robu and the ex-chairman of the Council, Dragos Vicol, and the mandate of their colleague Artur Cozma lasts until April 30. All three of them have the right to exercise their functions until the new members of the Board are appointed, but not more than half a year from the expiration of their mandates.

The head of the Board, Ala Ursu-Antoci, has specified for Media Azi that she informed the Parliament about the expiration of the mandates, “We have notified the parliamentary committee, and the profile commission is about to organize the contest. As soon as the Parliament announces the contest, we will also publish the announcement on our website.”

The former head of the Board, Dragos Vicol, does not exclude that the parliamentarians are waiting for April 30, when the third member’s mandate also expires, in order to start the contest. He specifies that the vacancies will be intended for a member nominated by the Government and two others nominated by civil society organizations. In total, five vacancies at the Board are reserved for non-governmental sector representatives.

“There is another function which is intended for the representatives from the Government, and five more from civil society. Respectively, we’ll have one representative from the Government and two more from civil society. Civil society will also have three vacancies left after the next three members, Tatiana Buraga, Larisa Manole, and Ala Ursu-Antoci, leave,” Dragos Vicol explains.

The parliamentary committee for culture, education, research, youth, sports, and media was empowered to initiate the contest to elect new BC members 60 days before the expiration of the mandates. However, the deputies seem to make no headway.

The chairman of the committee, Adrian Lebedinschi, has informed us that it has not been done yet due to the uncertainty about further activity of the legislative authority, referring to the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the notification from Maia Sandu, the country’s president, on determining the circumstances for dissolving the Parliament. The High Court magistrates are due to express their point of view on Thursday, April 15. “Let’s wait till Friday and discuss it later,” Lebedinschi has told us briefly.

According to the legislation, the BC consists of two members nominated by the Parliament, one member nominated by the head of the state, one member nominated by the Government, and five members nominated by civil society organizations. The candidates for the positions of members of the BC shall be selected by the profile parliamentary committee. 60 days before the expiration of the mandate of a BC member, the chairperson of the parliamentary committee shall request the entities concerned to nominate two candidates for each vacant position of a BC member and announce a public contest to select the candidates nominated by civil society organizations, publishing relevant information the official webpage of the Parliament and on the webpage of the BC, including  the regulations on organizing and conducting the contest and the deadline for filing the documents, depending on the vacant post.