Chisinau local administration's frozen accounts make elections difficult

The City Hall's frozen bank accounts make it difficult to hold the elections in Chisinau, said deputy mayor of Chisinau Mihai Furtuna on Monday. As many as 21 accounts of the city hall's structures remain blocked, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We cannot organize polling stations, since the accounts of district offices and of the Finances Direction remain blocked. Neither can we pay the utilities,” the deputy mayor told the staff meeting of the City Hall. Mihai Furtuna says the municipality will ask Termocom heat supplier to ask the court to unfreeze the bank accounts. “We recognize our debt to the supplier and we'll pay off as we proposed: by 30 million lei a month, plus the payments for the current consumption,” the deputy mayor said. Botanica district head Vladimir Guritenco says that, although the district office had presented the draft budget to hold the elections three months ago, the money cannot be used. According to the praetor, if the situation does not change, it's possible that the polling stations are not prepared in due course. The lack of financial resources makes it difficult to organize the elections well, he said. Chisinau mayor Dorin Chirtoaca has announced he will ask the Central Elections Commission (CEC), at a meeting on February 10, “to intervene to unfreeze accounts”. He calls on the companies to be involved in organizing the elections in Chisinau to provide the services and to accept to be paid after the ballot. “The elections will take place anyway, I don't think it's a reasonable solution to postpone the elections until Termocom reconsiders its position,” Chirtoaca said. Termocom's press service has stated for Info-Prim Neo that will lodge no request to unblock the account, as the municipal administration requires. The City Ha;;'s accounts have been blocked for several times. First, a Chisinau court blocked the accounts of city hall chancellery in October 2008, then later in January a court sequestered the subdivisions' bank accounts.