Marina Tauber, the candidate who was excluded from the electoral competition for the mayoralty of Bălți, is sure that she would have scored an overwhelming victory in the runoff vote. She said the illegalities of which she was accused by the Central Election Commission were identified in the first round of voting and this round was validated by CEC. Her exclusion from the competition was a political order and was illegal as it occurred before a final court decision was passed, IPN reports.
Marina Tauber said her removal from the electoral competition was ordered by President Maia Sandu as the government could not accept the absence of people’s support at the local level. The CEC’s decision to suspend the elections half an hour before the opening of polls was abusive.
“The Electoral Code does not stipulate that the elections can be suspended, as they illegally did on December 5, half an hour before the start of the voting process. Respectively, the consequences of this action cannot be legal. The decision to suspend the elections was taken before the Supreme Court of Justice pronounced on my exclusion. I was to run in these elections and to win 90% of the runoff vote. Five days before election day, polls showed I had a rating of 70% already. Would have those from PAS, CEC tried to remove me if I had gained 90% of the ballot? Do you think those pies influenced the choice of those form Bălți or they voted for our team?”, Marina Tauber said in the program “Prime Time” on PrimeTV channel.
She noted that her party is ready to mount new protests and will struggle to show that the citizens of Bălți were deprived of the right to elect their mayor. Șor Party also initiates the procedure for collecting signatures in favor of the dismissal of President Maia Sandu.
“The pies they said we didn’t report were offered in the first round of voting that was validated. Later, Pavel Postica followed the instructions of Maia Sandu. There were staged several protests, but more will follow. We are waiting to see what happens. We expect the persons who took part in this farce to speak or to withdraw from the race. We will not allow things to continue like that. There were already announced the Fund for the Salvation of the Republic of Moldova, the statement on the usurpation of power in the state, the impeachment of Maia Sandu. We are dealing with all the related procedures,” stated Marina Tauber.
The mayoral runoff vote in the municipality of Bălți will take place on December 19. This will involve independent candidate Nicolai Grigorishin, who ranked second in the first round of voting, and the representative of the Party “Moldova’s Patriots” Nicolae Kirilchuk, who gained only 416 votes in the first round. The PAS’ representative Boris Marcoci and the representative of the PCRM-PSRM Bloc Alexandr Nesterovschi, who ranked third and fourth in the first round, withdrew from the competition.