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 “Common Action – Civic Congress” fielded Mark Tkachuk for the mayoralty of Balti for the November 5 local election.
Mark Tkachuk was born on September 26, 1966 in Soroca. In 1982, he started to work as part of an archeological expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1987, he became a member of the Archeology Department of the Academy of Sciences. In 1989, he graduated from the Faculty of History of the Moldova Stare University. In 1991, he finished studies at the archeology field school in the UK. Since 1992 until 1994, he studied at the Institute for the History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg. In 1995, he defended his doctor’s thesis and the next year he published the book “Archeology of Freedom”. In 1998, he worked as a rector, while since 2011 he managed the Superior Anthropology School. Since 2000 until present, he has worked as the editor-in-chief of the publication “STRATUM plus”.
He sat in Parliament on behalf of the Communists in 2001-2002 and in 2009-2014. Since 2002 until 2008, he served as an adviser to President Vladimir Voronin. In 2019, being part of an initiative group, he announced the creation of the Political Party “Common Action – Civic Congress”. He is a member of the party’s executive and central committees.
For January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022, he declared 22,150 lei revenues and 14,000 lei his wife’s salaries, in both of the cases from the periodical “STRATUM plus”. The candidate had an honorarium of 138,728 lei from HD-Centre.
In the election campaign, candidate Mark Tkachuk and his team promote two action plans. Plan A refers to the building of kindergartens and sports grounds, repair of pipes and roofs, modernization and repair of the main streets, including extensive reconstruction of streets in the micro-districts Slobozia and Jubilee, augmentation of the public transport units by extending the network of routes to the industrial district of the municipality, liquidation of waste dumps, implementation of a separate waste collection system and new eco-tech waste recycling methods.
Plan B envisions the modernization of Balti into an industrial and business capital of the Republic of Moldova, into the main Ukraine – Moldova – Romania transport link, into the largest and most prestigious university center in Moldova, and also the development of the tourism sector in the city.
As it was decided by draw, Mark Tkachuk will be next to No. 12 on the ballot.
