The resignation was preceded by the announcement of the Socialist MPs about a draft law by which the legal mandates of the BC president and members who were appointed between January 20, 2016 and June 7, 2019, the period under the government of the former Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc, may end prematurely, if the document is approved. The authors of the document called this legislative initiative “on lustration and cleansing of the state of oligarchic influence,” based on the parliamentary declaration on the captured state, voted by PSRM, PAS, and PPDA parties a year and a half ago, in June 2019.
The document, drafted by 11 Socialist MPs, was registered in the Parliament on December 3. PSRM’s MP Vasile Bolea announced that, through this draft law, it is proposed “to clean up power in order to prevent certain people from holding responsible public positions – the ones appointed to such positions by the oligarchic regime that seized power in Moldova between January 20, 2016 and June 7, 2019,” because not all public institutions have been freed from the influences of the oligarchic regime after the adoption of the Declaration on the recognition of the captive nature of the Republic of Moldova. Thus, it is proposed that on the day this law enters into force, if approved, the legal mandates of the president and members of the BC, the director and deputies of the National Agency for Regulation in Electronic Communications and Information Technology, the president, vice president, and members of the Plenum of the Competition Council, as well as other important officials, appointed during that period, will cease.
In the current composition of the BC, the respective provisions target at least four persons: the BC president Dragos Vicol, who became a member of the BC in April 2015 and then president in May 2017; Corneliu Mihalache, Iulian Rosca, and Lidia Viziru, appointed in December 2018; and Tatiana Buraga, appointed in December 2017. It is not clear whether these provisions also apply to Artur Cozma, who was confirmed as a member of the BC in April 2015.
The mandate of a BC member is six years, and in the case of Dragos Vicol, it expires in April next year. During his mandate, some of the members of the BC resigned after the change of power, in 2019. These are Dorina Curnic, Veronica Cojocaru, and, later, Olga Gututui. They requested the resignation of Dragos Vicol on the grounds that he does not properly manage the activity of the Council. Media researchers, in turn, claimed that Vicol, during the Democratic rule, was loyal to the power at the time through his sparing attitude towards the TV and radio stations held by Democratic Party representatives, and after the change of power he changed his attitude towards PSRM and their affiliated media providers.