Mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban, as the deputy chairman of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM), said the exclusion of electoral contender Marina Tauber in an unacceptable juridical stratagem. According to him, the decision should be taken by the citizens as their rights are more important. Ceban said that in Alexandr Nesterovschi’s place, he would withdraw from the race, IPN reports.
The CALM deputy chairman Ion Ceban noted that both the Central Election Commission’s decision to suspend the mayoral runoff and the court’s decision to remove Șor Party’s candidate from the competition were taken with serious deviations from the legal norms, in breach of the principles of democracy and the rule of law.
“We see that some of the experts and representatives of civil society are not at all vocal in this case. What happened in Bălți is ineptitude, an unacceptable juridical stratagem. CEC does not have the power to do what it did. I didn’t vote for and do not support any of the candidates, but this is a new, very serious precedent set by those who came to power not long ago. The decision should be taken by the people and everyone should be equal in such conditions,” Ion Ceban stated in the talk show “Prime Time” on Prime TV channel.
The mayor said Marina Tauber was excluded from the electoral competition by order of the government as PAS does not want to lose ground at the local level. He noted that a decision concerning the eventual withdrawal of Alexandr Nesterovschi from the trace will be taken by the party.
“The witnessed events are inadmissible. For the first time I saw that the courts of law work at night and CEC works at night. In fact, it is the government’s goal to gain more power in this country as practically all the institutions were subjugated by PAS. It happens after they seized the Prosecutor’s Office, SIS, NAC, Teleradio-Moldova,” stated Ion Ceban.
Șor Party’s candidate for mayor of Bălți Marina Tauber was excluded by court from the electoral competition at the suggestion of the Central Election Commission after identifying violations of the electoral legislation, namely use of undeclared funds in the campaign. The mayoral runoff in Bălți will take place on December 19 and will involve independent Nicolai Grigorishin, who ranked second in the first round of voting, and Alexandr Nesterovschi of the Party of Socialists, who ranked fourth. The Party of Action and Solidarity announced its decision to withdraw its candidate Boris Marcoci, who finished third. CEC hasn’t yet made an official decision over this withdrawal.
