The Chisinau Appeals Court maintained the Court of Chisinau’s decision not to validate the recently held mayoral elections. The decision was passed on June 21, while sympathizers of Andrei Nastase protested in front of the Chisinau City Hall, demanding to validate the election. After the judgement was passed, Andrei Nastase said the judges fulfilled a political order made by Vlad Plahotniuc, the leader of the Democratic Party, IPN reports.
The hearing of the Appeals Court started at 3pm, but was shortly interrupted after the lawyers for Andrei Nastase asked to replace the judges, arguing procedural violations were committed at the start of the hearing. The request was rejected by the panel headed by Ion Muruianu.
Consequently, the appeal was examined by the panel led by Vladislav Clima. After several hours of deliberations, close to 8pm the judges rejected the appeal against the ordinary court’s judgment not to validate the election of Nastase as mayor filed by the PPPDA.
Andrei Nastase told the press that we are witnessing an absurd process and it is evident that a crime is committed against the inhabitants of Chisinau and its suburban localities and against the Republic of Moldova and democracy. It is a phlegm given by the controlled justice, while the judges, whom he considers criminals, lied and cheated from the very start of the hearing.
The leader of the PPPDA also said that the government is afraid of the anti-oligarchic pro-European forces and is ready to use all the available instruments to stop them. He is ready for any denouement, but this depends on Moldova’s population.
The decision can be challenged at the Supreme Court of Justice within one day. According to lawyer Dumitru Pavel, they will file an appeal. The parties and the press will not attend the hearing at the Supreme Court of Justice. The lawyer said they do not expect things to change after two courts of law passed the judgements they passed. The Supreme Court of Justice is to give a verdict within three days, but the law does not specify if these should be working days or not.
While the appeal was being examined, supporters of Andrei Nastase gathered at the City Hall and at the Appeals Courts to demand that the election of Nastase as mayor should be validated. They chanted “Validate the election!”; “City Hall is ours, jail is yours!”, “Nastase is the mayor!” etc.
The Centru branch of the Court of Chisinau didn’t validate the local mayoral elections held in Chisinau on June 3 for the reason that both Andrei Nastase and Ion Ceban campaigned on the election day, which is inadmissible according to the Election Code. Both of the candidates, through the agency of live streams on social networking sites, called on the electorate to vote. Even if these didn’t say who namely the people should vote for, the court decided that these actions had a significant impact on the voters’ option.
