Cimpoi remains chairman of USM

Mihai Cimpoi will continue to pursue the chairmanship of the Writers Union of Moldova (USM) during the next four years. The candidature of Cimpoi was voted with 135 votes at the General Assembly from November 3 2006; despite the fact that many writers declared previously that they want radical changes in the Union. The contestant Val Butnaru accumulated 45 votes. Mihai Cimpoi, who leads the union for more than 10 years, mentioned that the position of chairman requires a lot of time and energy. The institution has an important position in the public life because it has to promote truth. “We launched the process of democratization, of coming back to the Romanian language and to the Latin alphabet. I hope, to create further an association of creation unions. The experience we have gathered during these years, but also the ongoing projects obliged me to ask for the trust vote to keep chairmanship”, the cited source underlined. According to Cimpoi, the administration team of USM will be renewed. “New necessities emerged. We need, for example, a new image director within the frameworks of cross-border projects, but also of other employees”, Mihai Cimpoi said. The contestant of Mihai Cimpoi, Val Butnaru says that he only used his right to candidate for this position. “I have not presented my candidature to win, but to propose a new point of view. The Writers Union is not in a difficult situation, however it is not a prosperous institution”, Butnaru declared. The writer Nicolae Esinescu, withdrawn his candidature before the voting procedure. According to him, the election of the chairman will not change anything in the activity of the writers. The General Assembly of USM started its works in the morning of November 3 along with the report of the chairman and speeches of Union’s members and ended at 19.00 when the new chairman was elected. 273 writers have the right to vote in USM.