Petrache sues Tarlev for 10M lei over party presidency

Mihai Petrache, the former leader of the Moldovan Centrist Union (UCM), who renounced party presidency in September 2008 in favor of ex-prime minister Vasile Tarlev, is now suing him. “Vasile Tarlev is a self-styled president, who isn't even a member in the UCM”, Petrache told a press conference on Wednesday. Tarlev, together with a number of adherents, suspended membership in the UCM in order to be able to run in the July 29 elections on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party. And today Mihai Petrache, who calls himself the UCM's acting president, challenges Tarlev's position in the party. Petrache says the party is seeking in court the annulment of all the decisions made under Tarlev, plus 10 million lei in compensation for non-pecuniary damage. “The election of Vasile Tarlev as president of the party was illegal, as confirmed by the irrevocable decision of the Supreme Court of Justice”, says Mihai Petrache. He claims that the UCM's by-laws don't allow for temporary suspension of membership in the party, therefore Vasile Tarlev and 29 other members who followed him have lost the status of party members for good. Mihai Petrache added he regretted that he had brought Tarlev into the party in a bid to lure voters away from the Communists. Accounting for the poor electoral result of the UCM at a news conference earlier this week, Vasile Tarlev declared that those who hadn't been active enough in the parliamentary campaign were punished, among them the UCM “vice-president” Mihai Petrache, whom he expelled from the party.