The Party of Socialists starts the preparations for the general local elections of October 20, 2019. The party’s candidates for mayor and councilor will be those who always stayed near the party and inside the party, the Socialist leader Zinaida Grechanyi stated after the meeting of the National Council of the PSRM, IPN reports.

According to Zinaida Grechanyi, they haven’t yet decided who will run for the mayoralty of Chisinau municipality.  “We haven’t yet launched the process. We are at the preparatory stage. Any candidate will be examined by the political executive and a final decision will be taken by the National Council,” stated the politician.

The informal leader of the PSRM, President Igor Dodon said the campaign prior to the local elections begins on August 20. The PSRM’s National Council agreed the first actions that need to be taken by the party.

“With the support of the PSRM and the parliamentary group of the PSRM, a new period was kicked off in our country,” stated Igor Dodon. He noted they will do their best for the parliamentary majority formed by the PSRM and the Political Bloc ACUM to last long. In another development, the leaders of the PSRM said they will not accept party switching and will not accept MPs from other groups or independent MPs.

The Election Code does not specify a fixed period of the campaign prior to the local elections. Campaigning is allowed after the candidate is registered by the electoral body. Asked to say when the budget for the local elections will be agreed and when the elections will start to be organized, Central Election Commission head Alina Russu said the electoral authority is waiting for the Parliament’s decision on the calling of general local elections.

On June 18, the MPs decided that the general local elections in Moldova will be held on October 20, 2019.