Shor Party will not recognize the mayoral runoff election in Bălți on December 19 and the mayor elected as a result, after its own candidate, Marina Tauber, was eliminated from the race.

Ilan Shor, the party’s leader, blamed the ruling party PAS for it. “Because of their stupidity, consumer prices rose several times: gas, heating, food, you name it. And now they just stole Bălți people’s vote”, the fugitive politician ranted from his hideout.

He called on the two remaining candidates to withdraw.

“A man who respects himself would do the right thing and act like a man, and would say that this is not how you do it, not how you treat a woman”, Shor told Nikolai Grigorishin, the likely winner, who came far behind Tauber in the first round.  

After winning the first round with 48%, Shor Party’s Marina Tauber was removed from the race over campaign financing violations. The runner-up, Nikolai Grigorishin, was then supposed to face third-placed Boris Marcoci of the Action and Solidarity Party. But the latter bowed out, and so did the fourth-placed Alexandr Nesterovski of the Communist-Socialist Bloc. This left the fifth-placed Chirilciuc as the next in line to fight for the Bălți mayor’s seat.