The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) reacted to the alleged telephone conversation between President Igor Dodon and Mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban, which appeared in the public sphere. In the audio recording, the interlocutors discuss the annulment of the Chisinau local elections that were won by the leader of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Andrei Năstase in 2018. The President said it is an evident fake, while the mayor said he will challenge the recording, IPN reports.

“The position of the Prosecutor General’s Office remains firm and unchanged. As long as the legislation stipulates strict rules concerning the method of notifying the law enforcement agencies of alleged abuses or illegalities, the institution will exactly obey them. So far, the PGO received no notification on the issue. If it is notified, it will examine the facts in accordance with the law,” said the PGO.

“A recording was made public today and they assert that those voices were my voice and the voice of mayor Ion Ceban. This is an evident fake as those voices are not ours. It seems that the people forgot who decided to suspend Năstase and had all the instruments to do this, during the regime of Plahotniuc,” Igor Dodon posted on Facebook.

He noted he will ask the PGO to investigate those who produce and disseminate such fakes. “We expect more fakes to appear with the approaching of the election campaign. That’s why we should take all the legal measures for those who are behind such campaigns to answer for their deeds, including those who order them,” said President Dodon.

Mayor Ion Ceban also reacted, saying it’s clear that such things are done because some already unofficially entered the election campaign. “The fact that our voices do not resemble is suspicious, as is the context in which the recording appeared. We know that period and how the decisions were taken then. This case should be definitely investigated and I would not be surprised if it turns out that different fakes appear by someone’s order,” he stated.