Vasile Talev reelected as UCM’s president, secretly this time

Vasile Talev has been reelected as the president of the Centrist Union from Moldova (UCM) at the 5th extraordinary congress of the party. The congress took place on Saturday, December 13, in Chisinau. The delegates adopted the electoral program of the party, too, Info-Prim Neo reports. UCM had to reelected its president, secretly this time, as the Justice Ministry declined to recognize Tarlev’s previous election by open vote. “We shall observe the decision of the Justice Ministry. They are in power now, till the elections. The law is not discussed, it is enforced,” Tarlev told the delegates. Vasile Tarlev has been elected with the votes of 539 delegates from those 541 attending. The UCM’s electoral program is based on principles as Moldova’s statehood and neutrality, forming “a friendship belt around Moldova,” transforming Moldova intro a communication bridge between the West and East, recognizing the Orthodox faith as the spiritual basis of the Moldovan society. UCM eyes to modify the Constitution so that the president is elected by citizens, to turn the electoral system into a mixed one. The party wants to gradually raise the salaries 800 euros and the pensions to 500 euros, creating 100,000 jobs every years and building 5,000 dwellings for poor categories annually. The forts president of the party, Mihai Petrache, reconfirmed his application to withdraw from the position to avoid any problems with the Justice Ministry. Petrache insisted to remind that the UCM has been working since April 15, 2000, and not since September 2008. “The UCM is not somebody’s property and we’ll be successful only if we’re a united team,” Petrache said. He says the party almost doubled its number of members and territorial subsidiaries. The congress was opened through a religious ceremony, as two priests, one of them – Chisinau councilor Serghei Cires from the Humanist Party (PUM). The attendees stood up for a moment to commemorate the dead Russian Patriarch Alexiy II. The reunion has had as guests of honor the deputy governor of the Gagauz autonomy, the presidents of PUM, United Gagauzia and Our House Moldova. They got congratulation messages from United Russia party, the Democrat People’s Party from Ukraine, and from the Ecologist Party from Russia. Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovich sent Anatoly Kinakh to represent the Regions Party. Vasile Tarlev has signed with them a partnership accord. In the March 2005 elections for the Parliament, the UCM got 0.4% of the ballots, much less than the needed 6% to get into the Legislature.