At most eight candidates could run in the November 1 presidential elections. Six candidates were registered and the files of two more candidates are under examination. Political commentator Ion Tăbârță believes this number outlines the current political picture of the main political parties of Moldova, except for the Democratic Party, which didn’t field a candidate for President.
“Practically all the influential parties have own candidates, except for the Democratic Party that goes through a restructuring process following the leaving of Vlad Plahotniuc and also the defections from the party, following those ruptures, dismemberments. The fact that the PDM does not have a candidate is somehow surprising,” Ion Tăbârță stated for IPN.
The political commentator said it was evident that the participation of those who decided to run independently is rather difficult. In the absence of parties and local organizations, it was hard to collect the number of signatures needed for registration.
There is uncertainty related to the leader of the Pro Moldova Party Andrian Candu, whom the CEC didn’t register as an election runner. According to him, it’s not clear what happened: either a database of the PDM was used and this didn’t contain accurate data or it is an orchestrated non-registration aimed at stimulating a struggle between Igor Dodon and Andrian Candu, judging by the speculations about the reconfiguration of the government after the elections by involving the Shor Party and Pro Moldova.
According to Ion Tăbârță, the number of eight candidates is normal for this type of elections. At the presidential elections of 1996, there were seven candidates, while at those of 2016 there were more candidates. But the previous presidential election involved spoilers placed by Vlad Plahotniuc to disperse the votes of the electors of the right. If the spoilers are removed, there will remain seven-eight candidates who represent the main political parties.
The commentator noted that in this race there are local disputes between Igor Dodon and Renato Usatyi on the left, Maia Sandu and Andrei Năstase on the right and Dorin Chirtoacă and Octavian Țîcu on the unionist segment. “I fear the mistake of the local elections held in Chisinau in 2019 could be repeated. Then the parties of the right attacked each other so harshly in the first round of voting that a part of the voters on the right, particularly the unionist ones, didn’t go to vote in the runoffs. As a result, for the first time the office of mayor in the capital city was won by a representative of the Socialists,” he stated.
The campaign prior to the presidential elections of November 1 began on October 2. The race involves six candidates: Renato Usatîi of Our Party, Andrei Năstase of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform”, Tudor Deliu of the Liberal Democratic Party, independent candidate Igor Dodon, Violeta Ivanov of the Shor Party and Maia Sandu of the Party of Action and Solidarity. The Central Electing Commission is to decide on the registration of two more aspirants: Octavian Țîcu of the National Unity Party and Dorin Chirtoacă of the UNION Electoral Bloc.
