The draft law on the status of Chisinau municipality, put forward by the Liberal MPs, was subject to a new round of public debates on April 6. The debate was staged by the Parliament’s commission on public administration, regional development and climate change. In the event, the MPs of the European People’s Party of Moldova (PPEM) submitted their own bill on the on the status of Chisinau municipality, IPN reports.

The Liberals’ bill, which provides for the extension of the powers of the mayor general, aroused criticism among the participants in the debate. The commission’s head Elena Bodnarenco said the Academy of Sciences of Moldova disproved of this point included in the bill.

Unaffiliated MP Eugen Carpov said the hurry in which the bill was promoted generates suspicion. If this draft law is adopted, the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) will become an ‘appendix’.

Eugen Carpov presented the PPEM’s bill. According to him, this draft law was submitted to Parliament in 2015. This delimits the powers of the mayor general and the councilors and gives the councilors the exclusive right to name the deputy mayors, district heads and directors of municipal enterprises. It institutes the post of CMC chairperson with permanent status so that this is not held in rotation, as now. The chairperson will be named by the municipal councilors and will have the duty to organize the Council’s meetings.

Attending the public debate, Socialist MP Vlad Batrancea expressed his opposition to the bill proposed by the Liberals, saying this is antidemocratic. He wanted to propose another bill on the status of Chisinau municipality, which was drafted by a parliamentary working group. But this bill wasn’t discussed because it hadn’t been included in the agenda of the meeting.

The Liberals’ bill on the status of Chisinau municipality was to be included in the agenda of the March 31 sitting of Parliament. But after a number of MPs stated their objections to this bill, the Liberals gave up submitting it for discussion.