The protest rally held by the Socialist Party on Monday outside the Central Election Commission building represented “direct and undue pressure” against a state institution, thinks Ilan Shor. During a press conference, the leader of the party named after himself stated that such actions were attempts by President Igor Dodon and his party to account to their sponsors for the eventual poor electoral outcome.
Shor claimed that the rally was in fact ordered by a frustrated Dodon as a reaction to CEC trying to put an end to the electoral violations committed by the Socialists and the president. “The Socialist Party, whose only electoral manifesto is to endorse the president, as well as Igor Dodon, haven’t done anything for the country. This is why they will lose these elections, and now the Socialists’ informal leader is trying to give a justification for this defeat to his financial and political investors”.
Ilan Shor went on to criticize the president for “doing nothing”. “Name one investment contract, one concrete thing done for the country. The only thing he has ever done is that he renovated his office, the Presidential Palace. But it’s hidden costs are yet to be revealed.” Shor also spoke about the so-called migration amnesty promoted by Dodon and the Socialists. “They call it an amnesty, as if those people were some criminals. And then this Moldovan woman gives birth in a Russian prison. This is how influential our president really is and how he knows to keep a word”, said the politician, completing his criticism with a reminder of the president’s multiple suspensions.
The President’s Office responded by calling Shor’s statements “yet another attack on the presidential institution”. The Office recalled that the president “decided to stay out of the electoral campaign in order not to make himself a target of polemics from various political actors, who count on such bitter exchanges to improve their personal ratings”. The Office has called on all electoral competitors to rely on their own ideas, proposals and policies instead of trying to involve the president into polemics.
The Socialists protested yesterday against the electoral body’s Friday’s decision to sanction the party and the president for misusing administrative resources, following complaints from the Liberal Party and the Shor Party. The Socialists accused the CEC of doing the bidding of the Democratic Party, which they say is the true offender if abuse of authority is involved.
