Figure 22. Government Organization of Moldova, 1995

Moldova is a democracy with a unicameral legislature, the Moldovan Parliament, previously called the Supreme Soviet (see fig. 23). Following the earlier Soviet model, the Moldovan Parliament maintains a Presidium, which performs legislative functions when the larger body is not in session. Parliament has 104 members elected by universal suffrage for a four-year term. Any citizen eligible to vote (eighteen years of age and not prohibited by law) is eligible for election to the Parliament. The next parliamentary elections will be held in 1998.

Parliament ordinarily meets in two sessions per year. The first session starts in February and may not go beyond the end of July. The seocnd session starts in September and may not go beyond the end of December.

Parliamentary leadership consists of a chair and two deputy chairs elected by the delegates. The work of Parliament is carried out by fifteen permanent committees, which have purview in the following areas: agriculture and rural social development, crime prevention, culture and religion, ecology, the economy and the budget, foreign affairs, health and social assistance, human rights and relations among nationalities, law, legislative ethics, local administration and the local economy, public relations and the mass media, science and education, state security and military affairs, and women and family issues.

Data as of June 1995