Ion Dron, chairman of the Political Party “For People, Nature and Animals” (PONA), called on the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the actions taken by Victoriabank with regard to the party that asked to open a bank account in its name. According to him, the law clearly says that any differentiation, exclusion, restriction or preference in rights and freedoms of a person or a group of persons, any support for discriminatory behavior in the political, economic, social, cultural and other spheres of life on grounds of race, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion or beliefs, sex, age, disability, opinion, political affiliation or any other criterion is a violation.

In a news conference hosted by IPN, Ion Dron said the PONA is contending in the November 5 general local elections in Chisinau, in the election to the Municipal Council, and also in Grătiești, in the mayoral and local councilor elections. To be able to pay for campaign activities, he asked the bank to open an account and to issue a card. The electoral legislation provides that this is done within three workdays, but the bank account hasn’t been opened and they haven’t been informed about the refusal in written form.

In the course of this week, he went to the bank each day and even two times a day and in eight workdays he found out that the bank refused to open an account in the name of the party. The Central Election Commission’s, regulations provide yet that the banks within three workdays should inform the party or the person about the refusal to register an account. But Victoriabank hasn’t informed him about this refusal so far.

According to the PONA leader, the banks in Moldova can refuse to open an account in exceptional situations, like when the party’s chairman is on national or international sanctions lists and there are definitive sentences for offenses related to corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing passed against the party’s leader or members of the party’s political bureau.

“The PONA’s political bureau has seven members who were elected on September 17 in the party’s congress. We presented the list of political bureau members and their papers, but absolutely no member was sentenced or is undesirable in Europe and Asia. The question is, why did the bank refuse to open an account and to provide a written response? Throughout the week, I was being told that the go-ahead was given, but someone from the administration ultimately decided that a bank account for the PONA Party will not be opened,” stated Ion Dron.

He believes that the party is the victim of these statements, including his rhetoric inquiries whether Victoriabank had ties with the bank fraud, when a group of investors purchased a shareholding, as the former prosecutor general asserted in a conference on October 4, 2021. After that conference, the then prosecutor general was arrested. “Our hypothesis is that the whole group of the PONA Party is now the victim as Victoriabank takes revenge because we tried to put questions following those assertions by the prosecutor general, for this courage of mine. We do not have another explanation,” stated Ion Dron.

“I call on the Prosecutor General’s Office to go to Victoriabank and collect the documents submitted to have an account for the PONA opened as an offense is ongoing and this is called violation of equality of citizens’ rights.”

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