First unaffiliated candidate may start campaigning

The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday, February 25, registered the first independent candidate in the the parliamentary elections; having CEC's authorization, Sergiu Banari, a municipal councilor in Balti, may now officially start campaigning, Info-Prim Neo reports. His registration didn't go quite smooth. CEC found approximately 60 out of over 2,000 signatures that Banari brought in his support to be fake. However, the number of signatures deemed original was sufficient to allow his registration. Banari claimed that “the arguments brought by CEC were prepared by the PCRM (the Communists Party)”. “They realize that my participation in the 2009 elections will entail a subtraction from the votes for the ruling party. The municipality of Balti has become the last bastion of the Communists in Moldova. I'm sure that my participation in the election will be an unpleasant surprise for the PCRM”, said Sergiu Banari. “The election campaign in Balti will be quite a war between my team and the PCRM.” “To live in a state based on the rule of law and obtain integration into the European Union, we must first put an end to the Communists' era”, he said. Also on Wednesday, CEC approved some modifications to the Social Democratic Party's ticket.