New local mayoral elections are held in seven communities in Moldova today, May 20. The polling places work from 7am until 9pm, IPN reports.

Elections take place in Chisinau municipality, in Balti municipality and in five villages, namely: Leuseni and Nemteni of Hancesti district; Volovita of Soroca district; Parlita of Ungheni district and Jora de Mijloc of Orhei district. There were printed 752,460 ballots, 474,816 of which are in Romanian, while the rest are in Russian.

For the municipality of Chisinau, there were printed 634,547 ballots, including 408,080 in Romanian. The candidates for mayor of Chisinau, in the order in which they were written on the ballot, are:

1. Vasile Costiuc, Political Party “Democracy at Home”;
2. Andrei Nastase, Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth”;
3. Alexandr Roshko, Political Party “Our Home - Moldova”;
4. Valeriu Munteanu, Liberal Party;
5. Ion Ceban, Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova;
6. Victor Stratila, Green Ecologist Party;
7. Alexandra Can, National Liberal Party;
8. Maxim Braila, People’s Party of the Republic of Moldova;
9. Silvia Radu, independent candidate;
10. Alexandru Matu, Russian-Slavic Party of Moldova;
11. Constantin Codreanu, National Unity Party.

For Balti municipality, there were printed 105,275 ballots, 54,398 of which are in Romanian. The candidates for mayor of Balti are:

1. Arina Spataru, Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth”;
2. Alexandr Usatyi, Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova;
3. Pavel Verejanu, Political Party “Shor”;
4. Nicolai Grigorishin, Political Party “Our Party”;
5. Sergiu Burlacu, National Unity Party;
6. Elena Gritsko, independent candidate;
7. Simion Gutu, Political Party “Action and Solidarity”;
8. Oleg Topolnitski, Russian-Slavic Party of Moldova.

By two candidates run in Leuseni, Nemteni, Volovita and Parlita, while in Jora de Mijloc there are three candidates.

The voters must go to the polling place with the identity card and the accompanying loose leaf where there is indicated the domicile or residence. Those whose identity card is invalid, can apply for a temporary card at the branches of the Public Services Agency in Chisinau and Balti, which will work from 7am until 9pm on May 20.

Those who, for health reasons or on other grounds, cannot go to the polling place can vote at the place of stay. On the election day, applications for voting by the mobile ballot box can be submitted by 3pm in written form, but these must be accompanied by a medical certificate.

The budget of the new local mayoral elections this year is of over 22.5 million lei. The voting will be overseen by national observers, who will be assigned by Promo-LEX Association to monitor each of the polling places, and by international observers.