Double electoral significance of dismissal of CMC president Eduard Musuc. Info-Prim Neo investigation

Friday’s dismissal of the president of the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) Eduard Musuc has a double electoral meaning. On the one hand, it reveals certain currents and trends in the election campaign for the April 5 parliamentary elections. On the other hand, it highlights the possibility and need of early elections for the CMC, for the first time in a serious manner. The journalist colleagues from certain media outlets were mistaken or they deceived when they blamed the Liberal factions (the Liberal Party –PL, the Moldova Noastra Alliance – AMN and the Liberal Democrat Party - PLDM) in the Council for Musuc’s dismissal. One of the leaders of the faction of the Communist Party (PCRM) in the CMC Valerii Pavlov misled when he defended Musuc, saying at the same meeting that he is the most suitable for the post of CMC president. Eduard Musuc’s fate was decided namely by the faction of the PCRM and the whole PCRM. It should be noted that Musuc’s dismissal was voted on secretly. Thirty councilors of the 40 that took part in the voting voted for his dismissal. Eight voted against and two ballots were considered invalid. The faction of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which Eduard Musuc is a member, did not vote. The results clearly show that the partners from the majority municipal coalition that appointed Musuc to the post – the councilors of the PCRM and of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) also voted for his dismissal. Otherwise, the dismissal proposal put forward by the PLDM councilor Alexandru Tanase would have remained only a proposal. The Liberal factions would have garnered only 20 votes of the attending councilors. The meeting was also attended by five unaffiliated councilors. One of these (Mihai Severovan) can be suspected of sympathy for the Liberal factions, another one (Oazu Nantoi) of non-sympathy for the PSD and/or Eduard Musuc, two (Oleg Oniscenco and Serghei Cires) of non-sympathy for the Liberal factions and sympathy for the ruling coalition, while one (Valerii Climenco) is known as a severe opponent of the Liberal factions, especially the PL, and he told Eduard Musuc he supported him before the voting. Even if these five councilors would have voted for Musuc’s dismissal, plus four PPCD members, anyway there were 30 votes overall. This means that the PCRM faction voted. It voted partially, subtly, calculatedly and for a definite result. Why did the Communists (and the PPCD members) want to remove Musuc if they chose him as president in June 2008? The decision might have been influenced by the zeal with which Musuc did his job until now. The duality of power that he established in the local public administration, at the suggestion or with the support of the majority coalition, seriously affected the duties of Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, but it probably alarmed the coalition partners. They did not aim to diminish or annihilate the influence of the mayor by strengthening Musuc’s position. But even these reasons could not determine the removal of the CMC president. The coalition has enough levers to control Musuc or to divide the government benefits among the component parts. The major concern of the PCRM (and PPCD) was the rate at which the PSD used the image of the post of CMC president in the parliamentary election campaign. Eduard Musuc, as chairman of the CMC, is ranked second in the PSD list. The PSD leader Dumitru Braghis said that Musuc was the party’s candidate for Prime Minister in the government that will be formed after elections. The move was rather inspired given that he had the image of the best administrator of the capital city. The logic is simple, to the voters’ understanding: the person that can manage the capital so well is very prepared to head a national government. The people even came to the City Hall with the portrait of “Edic Musuc” to seek justice. But this image was created by using the political, logistic and mainly media support of the PCRM and PPCD, by contrasting it with the image of Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca. Ascertaining the facts, the PCRM and PPCD decided to follow Taras Bulba’s principle in relation to his son: “I gave birth to you, I will kill you”. By removing this election rival, the PCRM, at the start of the campaign, gave a serious blow to the PSD as election contender, which openly claims the votes of the Communists. Most probably, the hostilities will not stop here. Maybe they did not start here given that a whole district organization announced recently that they withdrew from the PSD. As a rule, such kinds of moves are not made without inspiration from outside as well. At the same time, the way that the second CMC president was dismissed (the PL leader Mihai Ghimpu was the first) shows that all the bridges in the Council are being destroyed so as to eliminate the possibility of creating the third coalition of local government. As a result of the February 13 act, which can be described as betrayal intensified by electoral controversies, the PSD faction will not accept and will not be accepted in the same coalition with the PCRM and PPCD. For the same reasons, the PSD cannot seek acceptance and will not be accepted in the former democratic coalition alongside PL, AMN and PLDM. There are no other possibilities of forming a viable majority group in the CMC that would assume responsibility to govern the capital - neither practically nor theoretically. The figures presented in the third paragraph are only one of the arguments that clearly show that no alliance of political parties can obtain the necessary 50% plus 1 of the 51 seats in the Council. There is no other solution than to hold early elections – the sooner the better for all, including the Chisinau residents. The results of the municipal elections will greatly depend on the outcome of the April 5 legislative elections. It is very interesting to know how far the political players are ready to go, if they already made plans.