Moldova facing local general elections. Commentary by Mihai Godea

The election campaign for the local elections will end on Friday, June 1, 2007. Which were the actions and how did they influence the “spirit of the nation”? How did the ordinary citizen see the term-in-office of those elected to represent them for four years? How intense was the “anxiety” of the vote-beggars and how convincing were they during the campaign? How fair and responsible were the politicians and how much democracy did the citizen sense over these two months? The series of questions could continue because Moldova is governed by the principle of the saying “nowhere like here!”, as well as another one “seize the day”. This election campaign was held exactly following these two corrupt “principles”, and its consequences will certainly influence the political process in Europe’s poorest country. [Tough heritage] Speaking about the previous term-in-office it is worth mentioning that it was only “half-recognised”. The local elections of 2003 were not recognised as free and fair by the international institutions. The government was not able to ensure a free and fair competition in 2003 because all the political forces and local councillors were forced to bear the label of “democracy surrogates” for 4 years. Regretfully, the political class learned nothing from this lesson, even if acknowledging the risk of bearing this degrading label for four more years. In the same period we have witnessed how the City Hall was “slaughtered” as an institution, actions aiming at diminishing its role in the political system of the country. The Soviet practice of liquidating an institution to defeat one single person was successfully implemented in Chisinau over the last 4 years. The Chisinau Municipal Council was marked during this period by two or three major problems: the row of ad-interim offices and the row of a fragile majority. During these four years, 6 persons held the office of Mayor, 5 of them being ad-interims. Even the mayor democratically elected in 2003 worked in an unstable situation and that feeling totally inhibited the working capacity of the City Hall. The SWAT troops became a part of City Hall’s image. Waiting for the upshot became a hard mission, so that the fact that the mayor chose a parliamentary seat over the City Hall in 2005 was deemed by the majority of civil servants as a salvation. It is worth mentioning that the following ad-interims have made the City Hall more peaceful by dismissing those who waited for that peace to come. Interim Mayor Mihai Furtuna was not too visible as his tenure was short. He tried to continue the political course and management of the previous mayor, but he was dismissed for no reasons by the majority formed in the Council by the Party of Communists and Christian-Democrat People’s Party. Not a single protest. He won the lawsuit against this decision but he has never resumed his activity. This situation made many think that Mihai Furtuna needed a moral rehabilitation and not legal. The next ad-interim, Vasile Ursu brought the “fun” into the City Hall. He was extremely docile and made many controversial decisions for which a lot of public money was spent. The strangest decision refers to “Valea Morilor” lake. It seems that Ursu followed in his activity a single Russian saying: “Let’s blow it all up, and than we’ll see what to do”. Then it was the ad-interim office of Veaceslav Iordan. He has been the first communist to lead the City Hall since 1990. He was very silent and was not interesting for the media. He is keeps silence even in the campaign, which is not an obstacle for him because he feels protected. He worked for a short period and entered the election campaign being replaced by Petru Svet who was later replaced by Nicolae Manastarli. This is the end of the period when the municipality of Chisinau and its City Hall were transformed into a seat of war between the main political forces, and the toughest battles were seen at the micriophone from the session room of the Chisinau Municipal Council. The factions present in the Council can be compared with the quicksand, as they swallowed civil servants and councillors, as well as fraudulent decisions. The destruction of the municipal audiovisual, together with the approval of certain “ordered” projects, such as the square of the National Opera and “Eternitate” Memorial, will remain emblematical for the leaving Municipal Council, as well as the impotence of the democratic parties represented in the municipal bodies to oppose to the interferences by the central authorities. [The future] In what concerns the present election campaign, it was tainted by abuses, pressures and unequal conditions. The persecutions on political criteria were the negative element of the campaign. The fight against corruption is absolutely necessary, and the guilty persons should be punished by court decisions. On the eve of the election, Moldova sees a significant increase in the anti-corruption actions. This fact happens for two reasons: liquidation of political opponents and strengthening the firm belief of the citizens that the big crooks will pay for their deeds. Regretfully, not a single corruption case saw an ending in the last 15 years and not a single high official was punished. In light of this situation, the international bodies have looked and continue to look sceptically at the anti-corruption actions made by the authorities on the eve of the elections and consider them persecutions on political grounds. Few parties were prepared for the campaign. The numerous candidates on the segment of the opposition show that the political class is immature. 19 candidates are too many even for the municipality of Chisinau. The presence of a single election bloc shows incapacity of negotiating and making compromises for the sake of a common goal. Each opposition party says it wants to win. The lists of candidates are dominated by anonyms, as anonym is every fourth candidate running for mayor. Few parties managed to include well-known personalities in the lists, what can the citizen do in this case? How can they trust unknown persons? And the politicians are still wondering why there are some many irresolute voters. The election platforms are different and very superficial, with a few exceptions. Only several candidates offered clear and realistic platforms. The majority came up with a series of financially ungrounded slogans, which they introduced in coloured booklets named “Election Platform of the candidate X”. Any reasonable person does not believe that the City Hall will increase the pensions because this is the competence of the social fund administrated by the Government and not by the Mayor General. But “the paper bears everything, because it is paper”, as Dumitru Matcovschi was saying. Given an inappropriate climate for the free and fair elections, with concerning trends related to justice, media, human rights, corruption, including political, this campaign is not different from the previous ones: puzzled candidates and voters, controlled and obedient media, unreal election offers, but full of slogans – all packed in a climate of abuses and persecutions. This campaign could not build political projects for 2009 and did not motivate the citizen to become interested in the public affairs. Regretfully, without the citizen, everything loses sense in the state and society. This is the truth found by the democracy and nothing better was invented yet.