Artur Croitor has announced that he decided to interrupt the process of collecting the signatures needed for being registered as a runner in the October 30 presidential elections because, as he said, the legal conditions prevent the honest independent candidates from gathering the required number of signatures.
In a news conference at IPN, Artur Croitor said that even if his initiative group managed to collect signatures in a number of districts, he will present to the Central Election Commission only one subscription list with his own signature so as to show his protest at the barriers placed in front of the independent candidates. An honest man needs 20 years to gather the money needed for a signature collection campaign.
Artur Croitor considers the obligation to collect signatures from at least half of the districts is exaggerated. According to him, a candidate can be representative even if this collects the necessary signatures only in Chisinau. Also, the period of time allotted for this process is too short.
He noted that the legislation should be amended so that the candidates proposed by parties are registered based on the party’s decision, while the independent candidates collect between 2,500 and 5,000 signatures from supporters, as against minimum 15,000 signatures now.
Artur Croitor believes the fact that the people can sign in favor of only one potential candidate for President is incorrect. Moreover, the people cannot withdraw their signature if they change their mind and want to support another candidate.
During the signature collection campaign, Artur Croitor could discuss with the people and reached the conclusion that the population is divided into disappointed people, disinterested people and people ready for uprising. If the change is not made by elections, a revolution could be started.
As regards the plans for the future, Artur Croitor said that together with his team he will build a civic movement that will be open to persons who hadn’t been party members during the last five years, haven’t been involved in dubious schemes and respect sovereignty. The movement will monitor the government and will react when it identifies abuses.
