After the posts of district councilors elected at the local general elections of October 20, 2019 were validated, there were named 32 district heads. Of these, 18 represent the Party of Socialists (PSRM), ten the Democratic Party (PDM), two the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” (PPPDA) and by one the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) and the Shor Party. The profile of the district administration after the local elections is available at web alegeri.md.
In a news conference at IPN, Polina Panainte, secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, said that is a synthesis of this year’s local elections. The feature is innovative and covers the whole country. It is the first of the kind produced in the framework of the project “Stimulation of public participation in the 2019 local general elections in the Republic of Moldova”, implemented with the support of the U.S. Embassy. “In some of the districts, things are more or less clear, given that the district councils were chosen by a simple or a relative majority of votes and the district’s administration reflects this majority. In other districts, we will see surprises as some of the parties that won most of the votes there do not necessarily have representatives in the administration of these districts,” stated Polina Panainte.
Igor Boțan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, said the data concerning district heads were presented only now because the process of electing district heads after the first round of the local elections of October 20 ended on December 20. Under the legislation, the post of district head is filled by one of the district councilors who is proposed by at least 1/3 of the colleagues and is voted in by a majority of votes of district elected officials. The district heads manage the decentralized public services in the territorial-administrative units they head and represent the district in the relations with the Government, other central public authorities, private individuals and legal entities from the country and abroad and in courts of law.
The ADEPT director noted that 18 (56.3%) of the 32 district heads represent the PSRM. This is twice more than the votes won by the representatives of the Socialists in the October 20, 2019 elections – 27.1% in districts. In fact, the PSRM obtained an absolute majority of seats in four district councils (Briceni, Dondușeni, Ocnița, and Taraclia) and a relative majority in another ten districts. The formation of coalitions between the PSRM and the PDM was beneficial not only to the Socialists, but also to the Democrats who obtained ten posts of district heads (31.3%). This is also about two times more than the electoral score achieved at district level – 16.5%. The PDM has an absolute majority of seats in the district council in Nisporeni and a relative majority in another five districts.
The ACUM Bloc was the most disadvantaged political entity as this terminated the cooperation relations with the PSRM in the most unsuitable moment of the process of strengthening its positions in the local public administration. ACUM won 23.5% of the vote and a relative majority of seats in 11 district councils, but managed to promote its representatives to the post of head in only three districts (9.4%) – Criuleni, Ialoveni, and Strășeni. However, in the last case, as in the case of the election of deputy district heads, this was an independent decision of the councilors of one of the components of the bloc, contrary to the party’s general position.
The Shor Party, with an electoral score of 6.7% at district level, obtained an absolute majority of seats on the Orhei District Council where it chose the district head and four deputy district heads. The combination of forces between the PSRM and the PDM in the election of district deputy heads was favorable for the two parties, the Socialists obtaining 28 posts of deputy district heads of 76, while the Democrats 25. The components of the ACUM Bloc – the PPPDA and PAS – managed to promote only 12 representatives to the post of deputy district head.
