Introduction of electric minibuses in Chisinau, building of an overground metro in the city and of a private parking garage for 1,000 cars are among the promises made by the candidates for the mayoralty of Chisinau Ruslan Popa, Roman Mihăeș, and Alla Popova. The three candidates presented the most important objectives of their electoral programs in the debates program “I want to be a mayor” on ProTV Chisinau, IPN reports.

Ruslan Popa, the candidate of the New Historical Option Party, said that he aims to solve the problem of public transport in Chisinau by launching electric minibus managed by private investors on public routes, by directing a part of the profit into the municipal budget.

“I have over 15 years’ experience in managing large international companies, with budgets of millions of euros. Therefore, I’m contending for the post of mayor. I consider this is a post of manager, not of politician. In my electoral program, I proposed bringing the minibuses back to Chisinau, but hybrid minibuses on electric batteries, special minibuses for transporting passengers, not the previous ones. The City Hall does not have money to purchase so many minibuses. That’s why private investors should be attracted and the fare will be around 20 lei. I discussed with businesspeople. If the fare is 20 lei, they are ready to purchase minibuses and to bring them to the city. It will be a public-private partnership,” stated Ruslan Popa.

Roman Mihăeș, of the National Liberal Party, said the launch of an overground metro line in Chisinau would solve both the problem of public transport and the problem of congestion in the city.

“In 2019, the pro-European, pro-Romanian forces lost Chisinau and these forces must regain it. I’m a candidate of the right and plead for national unification. The cosmetic repair works performed by Ion Ceban in several parks and on several streets do not entitle him to a new term in office. I think any of us, including me, can manage the capital city better than Ion Ceban does. Chisinau needs an overground metro as in Barcelona, Frankfurt, not an underground one. We have a city with 1 million inhabitants and we should create the possibility of travelling at high speed from one end of Chisinau to another,” stated Roman Mihăeș.

Even if she lives in Tiraspol, the candidate of Moldova’s Patriots Party Alla Popova said that she is aware of the problems encountered in Chisinau and proposes building a parking garage at the entrance to the city so as to ease traffic.

“Chisinau is not foreign to me. I studied here and come often here together with my family and know the city’s problems. The problems experienced by Chisinau and Tiraspol are similar. Our party pleads for Moldovenism, for the Moldovan language, for our traditions and history. To decongest the city, we suggest setting up smart traffic lights, building an underground parking garage with the capacity of 1,000 places as the cars are today parked on one of the street lanes and this leads to congestion,” stated Alla Popova.

The debates are organized by ProTV Chisinau channel in partnership with Promo-LEX Association, the Association “Journalistic Investigations Center”, the independent online publication “NewsMaker”, “My Mayor’s Office” Association, IPN News Agency and the portal “Privesc.eu”.