Government forms committee for constitutional reform, may push for direct election of President

Speaker and interim President Mihai Ghimpu signed a decree today to form a committee for constitutional reform.

The Communists have thus far refused to appoint representatives in the committee.

Mr. Ghimpu said that possible reforms would include the direct election of the President, who is currently elected by Parliament, and the replacement of the word "Moldovan" with "Romanian" as the language spoken in the country.

The ruling Alliance has thus far been unable to convince the Party of Communists to vote for its presidential candidate, and has threatened to implement constitutional reform as a way out of the stalemate.

Mr. Ghimpu also told Realitatea that the language of the majority population in Moldova should be called Romanian instead of Moldovan to finally allow authorities to end this controversy and focus on social and economic issues instead of linguistic ones.

For a background on linguistic conflicts in Moldova, see here.

h/t www.moldova.org