The Centru District Court on Monday upheld its earlier decision to annul a police record that ultimately led to the invalidation of Andrei Năstase’s victory in the 2018 Chisinau mayoral elections on grounds that he had engaged in election-day campaigning.
During a press conference today, the leader of DA party recalled that the police decided to appeal the initial ruling, pronounced half a year ago, leading the Chisinau Court of Appeals to refer the case back to the district court.
While welcoming the confirmation, Năstase criticized the district court for failing to see beyond the procedural violations of the disputed record. On the merits, the question of whether the illegal campaigning claim had any legal standing has remained unanswered even upon the second consideration. According to Năstase, this half measure means he cannot take the mayor’s seat.
“The (district court) only ruled on the procedures that had been violated by the police, leaving the merits unsolved, when obviously I and everybody else in Chisinau are interested in the substance of the case. Because we all know the allegations were bogus”.
Also, the sluggish progress of the case in domestic courts has prevented the winner of the 2018 Chisinau election to seek redress at the European Court of Human Rights.
“I will go the whole way to put an end to lawlessness in Moldova and to this disgrace where Plahotniuc decided that the vote of hundreds of thousands of people could be trampled on”, stated Andrei Năstase.
