Dorin Chirtoaca maintains lead in rankings of most influential politicians

Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca continues to head the rankings of the 50 most influential politicians in Moldova. Prime Minister Vlad Filat remained second in the June rankings. Head of Parliament Marian Lupu comes third the second month in a row, Info-Prim Neo reports. The rankings are compiled by the Strategic Researches and Political Consultancy Center “Politicon”. Twenty-six political experts, analysts and sociologists gave grades of ‘0’ to ‘10’ to politicians for last month. The mayor of Chisinau obtained 13 grades of ‘10’ and 254 points of the 280 possible. The Premier has as many grades of ‘10’, but 250 points. The Speaker got seven grades of ‘10’ and a total of 225 points. In a news conference on July 5, “Politicon” head Anatol Taranu said Dorin Chirtoaca continues to surpass Vlad Filat, who topped the rankings for a rather long period. “I think Dorin Chirtoaca’s success is due to his noteworthy presence in the election campaign. The fact that he won the elections indisputably had an effect on the experts,” said Anatol Taranu, anticipating that next month Vlad Filat may recover the lead. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca comes fourth. Communist lawmaker Igor Dodon fell from the third spot to the fifth. According to Anatol Taranu, Igor Dodon’s rating decreased because he lost the mayoral elections even if there is intrigue about the Balti Court of Appeals’ decision. For the second consecutive month, Igor Dodon has outshined the Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin, who ranks eighth. The Constitutional Court judge Alexandru Tanase and unaffiliated MP Mihai Godea are no more among the top ten politicians as they seldom appeared on the radio and TV. The 50 politicians were selected out of 100 participants. The list is updated every month. The last ten persons who score the lowest number of points are replaced. Artur Reshetnikov, Valeriu Pasat, Oleg Serebrian, and Vladimir Turcan were dropped from the June rankings. Among the new names are Valeriu Guma (38th spot), Valentin Guznac (40th), and Nicolae Juravschi (46th).