The Party of Socialists won the largest number of votes in the 2014 parliamentary elections because it promised to open the Russian market for the Moldovan products, but will be unable to make such promises in the local elections of this year and will thus not have a good score. Such an opinion was expressed by the vice director of the Institute of Legal and Political Research of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova Victor Juc when asked by IPN to state his expectations of the 2015 local elections.

“Moldova is a unitary, centralized state where the administrative units of the first and second levels are weak from decisional and financial viewpoints. As the people have a mistaken opinion about the vertical of power, it’s rather improbable that something extraordinary will happen in the local elections. The people consider that the problems can be solved by Parliament rather than by the mayor’s office,” stated Victor Juc.

The struggle in Chisinau municipality will be the most interesting given that the current mayor Dorin Chirtoaca will no longer enjoy the same support as in 2007 and 2011. “On the other hand, there are no worthy opponents. If a well-planned territorial-administrative reform is not done by forming six regions for example, which would ensure the decentralization of the unitary state, the modernization about which everyone speaks will not take place in Moldova,” stated the expert.

Victor Juc noted that the people in the local elections vote more for persons and it’s unlikely that a future mayor will say that he would be able to ensure the access of the Moldovan fruit, vegetables and meat. Also, the Socialists will not have a good score because they do not have powerful local organizations.