Communists boycott Chisinau City Council meeting

The faction of the Party of Communists did not attend Friday’s meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council. The councillors had to discuss issued related to the dismissal before term of councillors, dismissal of the deputy-mayors and creation of those eight specialised committees in the CMC. After a one and a half hour delay, Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca said that the meeting will be cancelled because the communist councillors are missing. While waiting for them, the leaders of the factions decided to cancel the session “so as to have a correct approach to the problem” Chirtoaca said. The Leader of the Liberal Party faction, Mihai Ghimpu told reporters that if the communist councillors miss the next meeting, the Council will continue its activity, according to the legislation in operation, without them. Although the communists deputed one member in each of those 8 specialised committees, they will continue working without the communist councillors because the legislation does not say how many persons a committee shall include, Ghimpu said. The cited source said that during the negotiations between the leaders of the factions present in the CMC, the Liberal Party, “Moldova Noastra” Alliance, Democrat Party and the Christian Democrat People’s Party decided to create a majority coalition in the Council and started to share those four deputy-mayor’s offices. Although he mentioned that the talks continue, Ghimpu said he strives for the CMC chair’s job. Leader of the Democrat Party Vladimir Filat considers that session was cancelled because it was not organised according to the legislation: either at the proposal of the CMC chairman, who was not yet elected, or at the request of one third of elected councillors and only as a supplementary reason – the one presented by the Mayor. He said he is satisfied with the decision to cancel the session, considering that in this way there will be no ground for disputing the decision made by the Council. Referring to the negotiations related to the distribution of offices, Filat said that this process is still uncertain. Although the leaders of the faction discussed on the topic, no final document was worked out so far. “A majority coalition within the CMC will be created on the basis of several principles, commitments and responsibilities taken upon together and only subsequently the offices will be distributed between factions. Speaking about the party I represent, PD made no decision on accepting or not the discussions which took place between the political leaders on delegating candidates for deputy-mayor”, Vladimir Filat said.