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 Party “We Build Europe at Home” (PACE) proposed Ion Strachuk for the post of mayor of the municipality of Balti for the November 5 local elections. The candidate heads the PACE Local Organization in Balti and is the party’s secretary general responsible for the North region.

Ion Strachuk was born in 1981 in Rădoaia village of Sângerei district. He has lived in Balti since 2004. He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Timișoara and obtained a master of law from the former Nistrean Institute of Economy and Law in Balti in 2012. He is also a master of political sciences – a degree he obtained from the Moldova State University – and a master of national security, obtained from the same institution. Before joining the Party “We Build Europe at Home” in 2020, he had worked for a private company since 2004.

The candidate is one of the co-founders of the PACE and a member of the party’s Permanent Bureau.

According to public reports, the candidate was among the four PACE members who splashed brilliant green on the deputy head of Sângerei district to show their disapproval of functionaries who got vaccinated for COVID-19 before doctors.

For 2022, the candidate declared 367,500 lei earnings from service provision. Ion Strachuk owns three lots, one of which is a building lot. He possesses a house of 183 square meters acquired in 2017.

Together with his team, Ion Strachuk undertakes to turn Balti into the cleanest, most comfortable and most beautiful city in Moldova. Among the candidate’s priorities is to build the first complete Recycling Station in Moldova during the first year of work with European investments. He considers that if household waste is burned at the Balti Recycling Station, heat charges in the city could be decreased by 20% compared with the national average.

The candidate aims to support local agricultural and industrial producers and young entrepreneurs, to build water supply and sewerage systems and lighting systems, to develop social policies, to open a business guidance center and to enhance the city’s tourist attractiveness.

According to the draw, Ion Straciuc will be under No. 2 on the ballot.