The fight against poverty and corruption, granting of a special status to the municipality of Balti, and solving of the problem of depopulation in the municipality are among the priorities announced by Sergiu Burlacu, Ion Strachuk and Mark Tkachuk, who are contending for the mayoralty of Balti, in a new round of electoral debates on TV8 channel, IPN reports.

Sergiu Burlacu, of the Liberal Democratic Party, said the municipality of Balti, as the whole country, is confronted with depopulation. The Moldovan citizens no longer see development prospects in the country, in Balti city in particular, and it is therefore important to create conditions for the people to remain at home, to develop and start families. The problem of depopulation can be solved by creating jobs, providing social housing to specialists from the educational sector, healthcare and other important sectors so as to develop the city, and also by offering concessions to business entities.

Ion Strachuk, of the “We Build Europe at Home” Party, said that he wants to be the mayor of everybody, regardless of the spoken language, ethnicity, place of stay. Society should be consolidated. He aims to fight poverty and corruption. In the municipality of Balti, there are enterprises that were used to launder money and the only method to fight this phenomenon is to merge municipal enterprises and conduct audits there.

Mark Tkachuk, of the Common Action – Civic Congress Party, said the solving of problems in Balti is a national task. He and his team aim to bring investments to the city, to raise the budget two times and to bring the people native of Balti back home. He will insist on granting a special status to the municipality of Balti and will order an audit of municipal property. The mayor’s office is not a pyramid of power formed of chiefs. It is a service accessible to all the citizens.

Candidates Victoria Shapa of the Chance Party, Anastasia Svetlichnyi of the Party “Force of Alternative and Salvation of Moldova”, and Nicolai Grigorishin of the Party of Change refused to take part in debates.