The protest mounted at the Chisinau City Hall in the evening of June 21 lasted for over five hours and ended close to 11pm.The representatives of the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” (PPPDA) said the people who are dissatisfied with the decision not to validate the local elections can come together in front of the City Hall on Friday and Saturday. A large-scale protest was scheduled for Sunday, June 24.
The people came to the City Hall close to 6pm and demanded that the election of Andredi Nastase as mayor of Chisinau should be validated. The crowd chanted: “Be afraid, the people are rising!”, “Nastase is the mayor!”, “Go to jail!”, “Down with the mafia!”, “Down with Plahotniuc”, “We will not give up!” etc.
Attending the protest, the leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu said that if democracy today is not defended, next time the people’s vote will no longer matter. “Not only those who voted for Andrei Nastase should be here. All those who consider they have the right to vote and their vote counts should come here. We should be able to change the power and to decide who deserves to represent us,” stated the politician.
After the Chisinau Apples Court upheld the ordinary court’s decision not to validate the new local elections in Chisinau, mayor-elect Andrei Nastase came before the crowd. “I urge you to call your relatives and friends as not my seat as mayor is at stake, because I already gained a mandate from the citizens of Chisinau, but the future of our county and of our children is at stake,” noted the leader of the PPPDA, urging on the people to take to the streets as there is no other solution.
Alexandru Bujorean, deputy chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM), said the government is testing the people’s reaction and wants to see how far they can go. If a step backward is taken, the government will take ten steps forward. “We are many here today, but will be more on Sunday. Either we or they. We wins? The people!,” he stated.
PAS deputy chairman Mihai Popsoi said many wonder why Plahotniuc does this and goes against the people. It occurs because the Democratic Party wants to remain in power and to be able to further steal from the people. Vlad Plahotniuc has never been pro-European as he stated, but after such a decision he burns the bridges with the EU and other foreign partners and Moldova will continue to degrade.
PPPDA deputy chairman Alexandru Slusari said Andrei Nastase’s victory scared a lot the real estate mafia as it was clear that with the validation of his election as mayor, all the illegalities will be stopped and unveiled. All the decisions are adopted by the mafia. If the people do not unite, there will be total disorder at this autumn’s parliamentary elections.
In the evening of June 21, the Chisinau Appeals Court upheld the Court of Chisinau’s decision to not validate the election of Andrei Nastase as mayor of Chisinau. While the judges were in deliberations, sympathizers of Andrei Nastase were protesting in front of the Court and of the City Hall, demanding to validate the election
Under the argued judgment of the ordinary court, both Andrei Nastase and Ion Ceban campaigned on the election day, which is inadmissible according to the Election Code. Both of the candidates, through the agency of live streams on social networking sites, called on the electorate to vote. Even if these didn’t say who namely the people should vote for, the court decided that these actions had a significant impact on the voters’ option.