The first round of the local mayoral elections and the only round of elections to local councils took place in Moldova last Sunday. The final results will be known only after the runoff vote, but the general tendencies seem sufficiently clear. These tendencies reveal particular things to the main election contenders and to the whole society, at local and national levels. At the national level, because the local elections are said to be a “general rehearsal for the future presidential and parliamentary elections”, which will take place in 2024, and, respectively, in 2025. The experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Nonlocal stakes of local elections” discussed the stakes of the political class in the current local elections, for the future national elections and the goals pursued by using such a “basis” or stake.
The permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan said the local elections are a constitutional procedure through which the citizens exercise their right to elect the local council and the mayor. The local council is the representative and deliberative authority of the population of the territorial-administrative units of the first and second levels elected to solve problems of local interest. The mayor is the representative authority of the population of the territorial-administrative unit and the executive authority of the local council. The mayor takes part in the meetings of the local council and has the right to pronounce on all the projects and problems proposed for debates, without the right to vote.
Igor Boțan noted that the mayor and the local council are elected by direct, universal, equal, secret ballot, with a freely expressed vote. The mayor is elected according to the uninominal voting system, while the council as a collective body is elected according to the proportional representation system. The local elections show the authentic potential of political parties – organizational, administrative, and political.
“The importance of local elections is very great. Grassroots democracy starts with them. The quality of services offered to the population, such as lighting, roads, water, sewerage, waste collection and processing and others, depends on the local elections. The local elections at community level are rather administrative. The district, county, regional elections are mainly political elections. Respectively, the local elections reveal the best the potential of political parties,” stated the expert.
MP of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists Vladimir Odnostalco said that it is rather hard to draw conclusions about the results of elections when the runoff vote is yet to be held. But preliminary conclusions can be drawn, especially as regards the conditions in which the electoral competition started and how the election campaign was conducted. The legitimacy of elections or the absence of this and the way in which the campaign was influenced by the parliamentary majority are the most important aspects.
According to him, the Party of Socialists (PSRM) had over 500 candidates for mayor in different localities of the country. The ruling party had over 700 election contenders for about 890 seats. “Most of the candidates of the ruling party are “deserters” from other parties, including the PSRM, regrettably, and parties that are criticized by the government. But the phenomenon of being “loyal to the government” is rather widespread among mayors,” stated Vladimir Odnostalco, a member of the National Council of the Party of Socialists.
He noted that the score obtained by the ruling party at the national level is actually very low. “These are local elections. The people in them elect the manager of the locality and for local and district councils they automatically vote representatives of the party that is represented by the manager they elect. Moreover, the ruling party has media machinery – TV channels, websites, bloggers, etc. There are also the President and the Premier who say that they are apolitical, but became actively involved in this campaign, together with the whole Cabinet of ministers, with mall exceptions. This thing can be confirmed by anyone,” stated the MP.
Vladimir Odnostalco noted that evident acts of blackmail were witnessed as the people were divided into good and bad, ours and yours. “Moreover, it is stated that if mayors who are not pro-European are elected, the consequences for the citizens will be felt – financing, European funds will be reduced. What kind of blackmail is this? There are many questions here. During the election campaign, the rules of the game were changed. The Central Election Commission used intricate regulations. Legislative amendments were made,” said the Socialist MP.
According to him, there are both advantages and disadvantages, but there are primarily dangers to the ruling party and the opposition. “Revenge taking” is one of the symbols of the government and also an opportunity for the opposition.
MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) Dorian Istratii said the current elections were organized according to the recently adopted Electoral Code that stipulates clear rules for all the political players. As a result, a record number of candidates for mayor of the municipality of Chisinau were registered in these elections - 27. “The large number of registered candidates set the tone for a democratic process initiated in these elections,” noted Dorin Istratii.
As to vote buying nationwide, the MP said that the intervention of the Commission for Exceptional Situations was necessary to stop this scourge. “This is a challenge for the government, for the state institutions and it should be dealt with urgently so as to prevent such a thing in the future, while the elections should take place honestly and correctly,” stated Dorin Istratii.
He also said that for the PAS, these were the first local elections in which the party contended alone as it competed in an electoral bloc in the previous elections. “Compared with 2019, when we had about 130 mayors, currently we have 244 mayors elected by the first round. This is a considerable growth. We also have 153 candidates who will contend in the runoffs. I think that in many of these localities, given that we have most of the seats in the local council there, the citizens will vote principally for the PAS candidate,” said the MP.
As to the capital city, Dorin Istratii said the PAS managed to gain four times more seats of municipal councilor – 20, up from the previous five seats. This is a very good result, even if winning the mayoralty of Chisinau was the main goal, which failed to be achieved. In the country, the PAS obtained the best score in 19 local councils and this result conforms that the citizens support the European course. The party is young and learns from its mistakes so as to become better and to deliver its message to more citizens.
According to the MP, the local elections can be compared only with local elections, not yet with parliamentary and presidential elections. In the last two types of elections, the Moldovans who are abroad also vote. The approach in the case of the local elections is different and fewer citizens usually vote in these even if this seems less normal as the problems of the citizens are solved by the mayor or the local council. However, the citizens’ interest in the local elections has always been lower than their interest in parliamentary or presidential elections.
The public debate entitled “Nonlocal stakes of local elections” was the 294th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
