Chisinau Council's night sitting ends in scandal

The Chisinau municipal councilors adopted the compositions of the electoral offices of polling stations from Chisinau, after the third attempt, on March 12. The session announced for 9 p.m. started an hour later and ended in a scandal. That was the second sitting of the councilors on Thursday, as they had failed to adopt any of the four issues on the order of the day, Info-Prim Neo reports. The sitting actually started on March 10 and went on attended by 26 councilors only, representing the Communists Party (PCRM), the People's Christian-Democratic Party (PPCD), the Social-Democratic Party (PSD), joined by unaffiliated councilors Oleg Oniscenco, Valerii Climenco and Serghei Cires. The councilors from the Liberal Party (PL), the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) and the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM) boycotted the sitting since the morning. They were unhappy that the majority asked to modify the lists of the poll workers entitled to vote within the electoral offices, and said that way rigging the April 5 elections in Chisinau was being pursued. Opposition councilors said the people proposed by the secretaries of district offices already had experience in the area. Interim mayor of Chisinau Vlad Cotet believes modifying the lists initially proposed by the district office secretaries is likely to make the managers of the institutions where the polling stations will be set up to decline the agreement to do that. That's because, by modifying the lists, the representatives of the institutions in commissions would be replaced by other people proposed by the PCRM, the PPCD and the PSD. When asked by Info-Prim Neo, Council secretary Valeriu Didencu said this might happen only in the case of the managers of companies not subordinated to the municipal administration. The modifications in the lists were finally adopted by the votes of those 26 councilors attending the sitting of Thursday evening. The councilors voted against the modifications earlier proposed by AMN councilor Nina Talmaci and unaffiliated councilor Mihai Severovan. The session was chaired by unaffiliated councilor Oleg Oniscenco. The councilors decided to appoint a new session chairman, after Pavel Caba, the leader of the AMN faction, who had conducted the sitting till the boycott of the opposition, announced he would follow his faction. Although being on the floor, AMN councilor Oleg Cernei did not attend the sitting saying “it was illegal”. Cernei protested as the sitting went on, accusing his colleagues of being “a herd without logic.” This only enraged the majority councilors, who unanimously voted to punish Oleg Cernei by deciding to deprive him of the right to speak at the next sitting of the Municipal Council. 239 polling stations are to be opened in Chisinau. Three of the electoral office members are appointed, under law, by the Council, and they shall not be party members. According to the Election Code, the composition of electoral offices should be adopted at least 20 days before the poll, that's on March 15.