Șor Party MP Marina Tauber complained to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) about her exclusion from the race for the mayoralty of the municipality of Bălți. According to lawyers, the file contains all the documents and evidence confirming the abuses committed against the candidate, IPN reports.

“We won those elections after gaining about 49% of the vote in the first round. This is over twice more than the score of the second-ranked candidate and several times more than the score of the other contenders. But the PAS government, in collusion with its favorite candidate here, who tried and ultimately entered the mayoralty through the back door, put off the runoff vote only several hours before the opening of polls. We informed you from the start that we will not allow things to remain like this and will struggle to defend the vote of the people from Bălți by using all the existing means, including through the ECHR,” Marina Tauber stated in a news conference given in front of the Bălți mayor’s office.

She accused the government and the current mayor of Bălți of not doing anything to improve the life of the people from Bălți. “Making absurd accusations and violating all the rights to defense, the government ultimately installed its favorite in the office of mayor and then abandoned this city, leaving it to cope alone. We are daily besieged by people who ask us to help them solve their problems. The people realize that the current mayor is a puppet and I and our team are actually their lawful representatives in Bălți,” said Marina Tauber.

Lawyer Vadim Banaru noted that a number of basic rights were violated, including the right to a fair trial, the right to defense and the right to vote and to stand as a candidate. “We are confident that the confirmatory documents and the accumulated proofs we attached to the file will be sufficiently convincing for the judges of the High Court and justice will ultimately triumph,” he stated, adding they hope the final verdict will be given as soon as possible and Missis Tauber will be reinstated.

Marina Tauber was excluded from the competition for the mayoralty of Bălți in December 2021 after she won the first round of voting. It happened after the Central Election Commission identified irregularities in the financing of the election campaign of Şor Party’s candidate, determining undeclared funds of at least 34,000 lei.