Seventeen projects selected by public voting to be funded under Chisinau’s Civic Budget instrument will now be submitted to the City Council for approval. The projects have a total implementation cost of 3 million lei.

Nine are considered small projects, with budgets under 100,000 lei, and the remaining eight have budgets under 300,000 lei. The best voted projects included one to rehabilitate the yard of the Minerva Lyceum and another one to modernize the sports ground of the Dante Alighieri Lyceum.

During the press conference to announce the voting results, some civil society members criticized the voting system as unfair, as it allowed multiple votes from a single IP. Public debates were proposed to identify a fairer way to select citizen projects for funding by the municipality. The city’s PR chief Vadim Brinzaniuc replied that, flawed as it might be, the current system didn’t favor any particular contestant.