City Council fails to elect its president and Chisinau deputy mayors

The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) did not manage to elect at Thursday’s meeting its president and the deputy mayors of the capital city. Disputes on the issue were triggered at the start of the meeting by the proposal of the Liberal Party (PL) to postpone electoral issues until the end of the meeting. The proposal was not accepted. PL fielded then its leader, Mihai Ghimpu, for CMC president. Several councilmen were against the candidacy of Ghimpu. Councilman Valeri Klimenco accused Ghimpu of nationalism, chauvinism and lack of experience. The leader of the social-democrats, Eduard Musuc, stated that the checks and balances of the city administration will be in question if the CMC is run by the PL president, as the mayor’s job is held by the vice-president of the party. “The CMC president must not have neither political nor personal commitments to the mayor general”, Musuc underlined. Musuc’s proposal to elect the CMC president by secret voting again stirred up arguments among the councilmen, but with majority of votes the proposal was finally accepted. “It is obvious that the secret voting aims to squeeze out Ghimpu”, said the PL president, who withdrew his candidacy, arguing that the agreement of the majority coalition was not observed. Gimpu suggested that the Democrat Party, which signed the coalition agreement, entered into alliance with the other political parties in the Council, while AMN didn’t make sure that all its members attend the meeting. Following consultations with the group leaders, Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca fielded Nistor Grozavu, dean of the Technical University’s Architecture Department, for the post of deputy mayor on behalf of the Liberal Party. Grozavu got only 25 of the required 26 votes. Valeri Klimenko voted against, while the other councilmen abstained, including the democrat councillor Mihai Severovan. Chirtoaca said that under such circumstances he refuses to put forward other candidates. The issue was postponed until the next meeting.