Academician Ion Tighineanu, acting president of the Academy of Sciences, was nominated for the post of president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. The candidate was agreed by the General Assembly of the Academy’s Social, Economic, Humanistic Sciences and Arts Section by a majority of votes on March 12. Earlier, another two General Assemblies of the Academy’s Life Sciences Section and the Exact and Engineering Sciences Section also approved the candidate by a majority of votes, IPN reports.

Under the law on the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the president of the Academy is elected by the General Assemblies of the three sections of sciences. All the General Assemblies proposed only Ion Tighineanu for this post. Now that the General Assemblies of the three sections voted, the commission for the election of the president of the Academy of Sciences will total the results and pronounce on them.

The post of president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova fell vacant after ex-president Gheorghe Duca tendered his resignation at the end of last November, invoking health reasons. He also said that his decision coincided with the criminal proceedings in which he was involved together with his wife Maria Duca, former rector of the University of the Academy of Science. The two are accused of abuse of power and causing of almost 1 million lei damage to the state budget and face a fine of 32,500 to 57,500 lei or at most three years in jail. In both of the cases, they will be banned from holding posts for a period of two to five years. Gheorghe Duca managed the Academy since 2004.