The suspended mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca hasn’t been registered as a participant in the November 19 referendum on his dismissal. The decision to reject the mayor’s request was adopted by the Chisinau District Electoral Council on October 19 by seven votes out of ten. Consequently, the Liberal Party announced its intention to register as a participant in the plebiscite so as to persuade the voters of Chisinau municipality not to take part in the November 19 referendum, IPN reports.
The Chisinau District Electoral Council invoked that the documents for registration must be submitted in person. In the case of Dorin Chirtoaca, who is under house arrest, the documents were filed by proxy. Another reason for the refusal was that private individuals cannot be registered as participants in the referendum. This is possible only in case of parties and sociopolitical organizations. Under the Election Code, the decision can be disputed at the Central Election Commission.
In a press statement, Dorin Chirtoaca commented that the refusal to register him shows that the Socialists and others fear to allow him to state his viewpoint and to address the residents of Chisinau. “This way they show once again that this is an artificial subject and an additional reason to stay at home on November 19 and not to support these foolish things that they invent against me. What is more serious is that what happens to me now actually happened to the city because of them during ten years. They evidently tried to “bury” me in different ways and now try to do this through the referendum. I don’t think they will succeed and in the parliamentary elections next year they will be all buried by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova,” wrote the suspended mayor.
In a press release, the Liberals say they will apply to register the party as a participant in the race for the referendum in order to enable the party’s representatives to go to electoral debates and meetings with voters. This does not yet mean that the Liberal Party abandoned its earlier decision to call on the voters of Chisinau municipality not to take part in the referendum initiated by the Socialists against Dorin Chirtoaca.
