The Supreme Court of Justice’s ruling whereby the invalidation of the election of Andrei Nastase as mayor of Chisinau was upheld cannot be considered unexpected given the previous judgements passed by the Chisinau City Court and the Appeals Court, said experts invited to the talk show “Politics of Natalia Morari” produced by TV8 channel, IPN reports.
Executive director of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives Vlad Kulminski said the SCJ’s ruling cannot be described as unexpected. Such a decision is less dangerous from political viewpoint for the government than allowing the opposition candidate to obtain such a solid platform that would have enabled him to improve his rating for the parliamentary elections. “This decision probably simply confirmed the previous two decisions as now the ruling party could no longer go back. The Supreme Court of Justice couldn’t have taken the validation decision as this would have increased the opposition’s rating,” stated Vlad Kulminski. According to him, nowhere in the world can the call to vote on the last campaign day serve as a reason for annulling the elections.
Political analyst Corneliu Ciurea considers the current power should have accepted this decision and acted based on it. He noted the given decision has profound political consequences for the judiciary system, which the current power will have to deal with. These consequences are internal – the protests – and external as well as the foreign partners will also express their dissatisfaction. “The power will have to solve these issues,” stated the analyst.
Socialist MP Bogdan Tirdea said he does not support the Supreme Court of Justice’s ruling because he considers the Party of Socialists’ candidate Ion Ceban should have been declared winner in the early mayoral elections in Chisinau. The two candidates from the runoffs shouldn’t have been excluded from the race and the elections shouldn’t have been nullified. “If Ion Ceban was Vladimir Plahotniuc’s candidate as they say, why wasn’t Mister Ceban declared winner after Nastase was removed, as it should have been done in accordance with the law? Why was the law broken,” asked the MP.
In the evening of June 25, the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the Appeals Court’s decision to not invalidate the results of the early mayoral elections held recently in Chisinau municipality.
