The article forms part of IPN’s series to present candidates for mayor of the municipality of Balti at the general local elections of November 5, 2023.

The Political Party “Our Party” put forward Alexandr Petkov as a candidate for the mayoralty of Balti at the November 5 local election.

Alexandr Petkov is married and has two children. He is politically unaffiliated.

The candidate was born on November 27, 1972 in Cantemir district. In 1989, he graduated from secondary school No.2 in Cimișlia, in 1994 – the Faculty of History of the Moldova State University, later the National School of Political Science and Public Administration in Bucharest, the Faculty of Political Science.

In 1996, he worked as an adviser at the External Relations Division of Moldova’s Parliament. In 2000, he was named head of the Parliament’s Information and Analytical Center. In 2001-2004, he served as vice director of the Political Planning Division of the President’s Office, adviser to President Vladimir Voronin on foreign policy issues. In 2004-2006, he managed the Information and Analytical Center of the Central Committee of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova. He served as a member of the Central Committee of the PCRM until 2014. In 2010-2014, he sat on Moldova’s Parliament, serving as the deputy head of the parliamentary commission on culture, education, youth, sport and the media.

In a note issued to IPN, the Political Party “Our Party” says that during the period when Vladimir Plahotniuc was destroying and buying the only opposition country, the Party of Communists, Alexandr Petkov was one of the few MPs who rejected all the attempts made by Plahotniuc to “buy” them. Therefore, he was later excluded from the PCRM.

For the period between January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022, the candidate declared €640.70 earnings from the corporation Google LLC and 154,483 lei his wife’s salaries from teaching at the Theoretical Lyceum “Alexandr Pushkin”. He inherited €48,600 and also indicated two donations totaling 115,961 lei. The MP also declared 80,000 lei obtained from the sale of a car. He owns an apartment (where he lives) of 93.60 square meters bought in 2014 to the value of 357,723 lei and a car. He also owns a 100% holding in OMG-Media Grup SRL, 1/3 in AO Karitas-Plus, AO Moldova Liberă, 20% in SRL Bagsan-Tur.

Alexandr Petkov considers the municipality of Balti should become a comfortable and safe city for people of all ages. The candidate and his team pledge to modernize Balti. He considers the city needs a jump so as to restore the locals’ confidence in the future and to attract investment. He also aims to improve street lighting, to extensively repair roads and sidewalks, to finish the building of Kievskaya Street and other road sections.

Following a draw, it was decided that Alexandr Petkov will be preliminarily under No. 13 on the ballot.