Districts of Chisinau to be headed by Mayors and district council

Those 5 districts of Chisinau city will be headed by Mayors and district councils, this way the present institution of pretor being canceled. The Parliament adopted on Friday, July 28, a draft law on this issue and amended the law on local public administration, the Electoral Code and the Law on administrative-territorial organization of the Republic of Moldova. According to the amendments, the districts will have one mayor and 2 deputy-mayors and the municipality will have a general mayor and 4 deputy-mayors. As well, a local council will run each district. The districts of Chisinau will have the same attributions as the administrative-territorial unities of level I. The decisions of the Chisinau Municipal Council and the normative disposals of the general Mayor will be compulsory for the authorities of the districts. The amendments to the Electoral Code stipulate that the Mayors and the district councils will be elected according to the electoral legislation in force. In order to validate the elections a presence of 25% is sufficient, and in the case of repeated elections the electoral threshold is excluded. According to the authors, the MPs of the communist, democrat, Christian-democrat factions, these amendments aim at expanding the possibilities of the citizens in administrating local interest issues; diminishing the present monopoly of the CMC and of the City Hall; creating conditions so that in the state structures could be represented different political forces etc. Solicited by Info-Prim Neo to comment upon these amendments, the Municipal Councilor, Mihai Roscovan said that the amendments on the creation of district councils and electing the district mayor in Chisinau are not justified from the economic and social point of view. According to the quoted source, this fact means creating 2nd level of public administration within the city, strict delimitation of the competences between CMC and district councils, covering financially these competences and forming new administrative structures with separate and independent budgets. According to Roscovan, the districts of Chisinau are different if taking into consideration the population and the economic potential. For example 80 thousand inhabitants live in Ciocana district, while in Botanica district – over 190 thousand. A fair amount of inhabitants work and pay taxes in other districts. So the incomes will have to be redistributed. The councilor states that Moldova does not have yet a positive experience in redistributing incomes and expenses between the 1st and 2nd level of local administration. The improper tackling of attributing competences and redistributing incomes will generate conflicts between the district Mayors and councils, General mayor and the CMC. According to another argument, the new structure of the public administration in Chisinau will generate supplementary expenses for the activity of the district councilors and civil servants. At present the annual direct costs for a councilor amount to MDL 5 thousand, and for a civil servant – minimum to MDL 25 thousand. The new version of the local public administration will increase the number of local councilors at least by 20%. Expenses will also grow because of the fact that the reorganization taking place at present in the CMC is not taking into account these amendments. Although it is promoted the slogan “expanding the possibilities of citizens in administrating local interest issues”, Mihai Roscovan considers that these amendments aim at reestablishing the soviet administrative system, in order to strengthen the influence of the central government over the local divisions. Victor Popa, doctor in law, program coordinator at IDIS “Viitorul” considers that the amendments are nothing else than a revival of the old system. According to him, at present, the CMC can decide, for example, on a unique policy regarding the uniform development of the city. As well, at present there are leverages for sanctioning pretors or the local civil servants in case one does not honor his tasks, procedure which will become impossible if the proposed amendments will come into force. Regarding the amendments to the Electoral Code, which reduce the electoral threshold for the validation of elections from 1/3 to 25% and which passed first reading, the quoted source said that for democratic principles this figure is not relevant. The expert considers that this threshold must be eliminated, because the right to participate in elections is optional and the elections must be validated regardless of the number of electors. The amendments will come into force when the local general elections of 2007 will be announced.