The Liberal Party’s candidate for mayor general of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca leads the rankings of 50 most influential politicians in Moldova. After topping the rankings for five months, Prime Minister Vlad Filat slipped to the second place. The PCRM’s candidate for the mayoralty of Chisinau Igor Dodon comes third. He climbed four positions from the previous rankings, Info-Prim Neo reports. The rankings are compiled by the Strategic Researches and Political Consultancy Center “Politicon”. Twenty-two political experts, analysts and sociologists give grades of ‘0’ to ‘10’ to politicians every month. Dorin Chirtoaca scored eight grades of ‘10’ and a total of 197 points of 290 possible. Vlad Filat obtained eleven grades of ‘10’, but only 190 points overall, while Igor Dodon – five grades of ‘10’ and a total of 176 points. “Politicon” head Anatol Taranu told a news conference on Tuesday that it is for the first time that Vlad Filat lost the top position, to Dorin Chirtoaca, who ranked fifth the previous month. He said that the disagreements inside the PLDM and the recent defections from the party made the experts give lower grades to Vlad Filat. “The Communist candidate for mayor Igor Dodon mounted four spots and this shows that he is a worthy opponent,” said Anatol Taranu. He also said that Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga is a surprise of the May rankings. She took the eighth position with 130 points, as against the 12th spot in April. However, she got no grade of ‘10’ from the experts. The rankings include only five women. According to Anatol Taranu, this is because not many women manifest leadership abilities. “The woman is Moldova is associated with the kitchen rather than the Parliament. We must stimulate the women’s involvement in the political life,” said Taranu. The leader of the PCRM Vladimir Voronin ranks sixth, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca slipped to the fifth spot from the third, the president of the Central Election Commission Iurie Ciocan takes the ninth position, while businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc kept the tenth spot. The rankings are closed by Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov. Anatol Taranu anticipated that the candidate who will win the post of mayor of Chisinau will take a leading position in the June rankings. The 50 politicians were selected out of 100 participants. The list is updated every month. The last ten persons who score the lowest number of points are replaced.