The Party of Socialists (PSRM) considers the arrest of Marcel Cenușă, the head of Cahul district, represents political repression on the part of the ruling party and demands to set this free. The Socialists called on the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate all the unfounded cases of political pressure against the opposition, IPN reports.
The party’s executive secretary, MP Vlad Batrîncea in a press briefing said that amid a tense regional and socioeconomic situation, representatives of the ruling party started to exert pressure on representatives of the opposition in districts, instead of offering the necessary support.
Vlad Batrîncea reminded that ten days ago, he gave a news conference together with two district heads: Marcel Cenușă from Cahul and Vasile Maxim from Ștefan-Vodă. The two told about the actions taken in their districts to house refugees. According to the MP, representatives of the PSRM from districts were the most active ones in welcoming refugees to Moldova and all the placement centers were organized with funds of the local public authorities, business entities and citizens. The district heads said they need financial, material and technical support from the Government so as to be able to pay salaries, maintain schools and public institutions.
“Instead of support and gratitude for the done work, the Government responded in another way. The head of Cahul district Marcel Cenușă was today arrested for 72 hours. The members of the parliamentary majority, representatives of the Government from districts daily try to exert pressure on local elected officials so that these obey the ruling party,” said Vlad Batrîncea.
He called on the government “to stop the political repression against representatives of the opposition and to deal with really important problems – to handle the economic and social crisis that hit the country owing to the action of the current government of the Republic of Moldova”.
The head of Cahul district and another eight persons, among who are employees of the District Council, a mayor and businessmen, were arrested on charges of passive corruption, active corruption and abuse of office. These are suspected of causing over 1 million lei damage to the district budget as a result of rigged procurement procedures. The chairman of the Cahu District Council and the other suspects arranged the results of a number of public tender contests. They signed in advance contracts for the repair and maintenance of public facilities, favoring the companies that they managed from behind. Abusing their posts and pursuing personal interests, the functionaries transferred money to the accounts of business entities even if the works weren’t finished, as the National Anticorruption Center said.
