Tiraspol, 5 April. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Today the committee on legislation, law enforcement bodies, defence, security, peacekeeping activities, protection of citizens' rights and freedoms has considered a package of constitutional draft laws regulating the provision of people's deputies' immunity and a mechanism of bringing lawmakers to account. This draft law has been worked out by a group of MPs in compliance with legal reasoning ruled by the Constitutional Court.
Along with this bill, the committee has also discussed the prosecutor's bill restricting local councillors' immunity.
As was noted by a representative of the prosecutor's office, this bill has been elaborated as part of the harmonisation of the Pridnestrovian and Russian legislation. This initiative, according to the official, meets the principles of democracy and justice.
In particular, the draft law provides for the reform of the institute of immunity with the regard of bringing local councillors to administrative and penal account on a universal basis. However, a councillor cannot be brought to account for opinion or position expressed while voting as well as other activities corresponding to the status of the people's deputy. The emergence of this bill is caused by the difficulty, or even impossibility, of bringing deputies for account for offences unrelated to legislative activities.
«Practice shows that in most cases, when considering approval for bringing councillors to account, local councils make unjustified decisions and refuse to meet the prosecutor's demands. So, of 27 prosecutor's requests to bring local councillors to account, only seven were approved. In eight cases the Supreme Council was requested to cancel the decisions of the local councils, and as a result one more request was satisfied and three more were returned to local councils for reconsideration," reads the explanatory note to the draft law.
The Supreme Council deputies and local councillors present at the committee meeting argued against this norm. They particularly noted the possibility of exerting pressure on people's deputies in the event this bill is passed.
The initiative has received a negative opinion, whereas the package of laws proposed by MPs has been recommended for approval on first reading.
