The candidate of the Party of Action and Solidarity Alexei Percemlî won the mayoral election that was rerun in Bubuieci commune of Chisinau municipality on February 11. He polled 891 votes out of the 1,748 votes cast. A candidate for mayor is considered elected if he/she gains more than half of the valid votes cast in the election, IPN reports.
The Central Election Commission said that the turnout of voters in last Sunday’s election was of 22.26% of the voting-eligible citizens. Under the Electoral Code, the rerun election is considered valid regardless of the turnout.
According to preliminary data, Alexei Percemlî of PAS polled 891 votes, Igor Moraru of the Liberal Party – 562 votes, Lilia Purteanu of the Party of Development and Consolidation of Moldova – 112 votes, Gheorghii Mocan of the Party of Communists – 83 votes, Alun Dodi of the Party of Change – 55 votes, while Victor Grinco of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova – 45 votes.
After the mayoral runoff vote held last autumn, the candidate of the National Alternative Movement (MAN) Leonid Umaneț won the election in Bubuieci with 50.75% of the ballot. The rerun election was ordered by the CEC following the Chisinau Court of Appeals’ decision of December 14, 2023 to uphold the Supreme Court of Justice’s judgment of December 22, 2023 by which the administrative document to register Leonid Umaneț as an election contender was declared illegal. MAN called the decision “arbitrary”.
On February 11, the leader of MAN, Chisinau mayor Ion Ceban said that the election in Bubuieci is illegal. “The Central Election Commission, by order, annulled the results of the November 2023 election, annulled thousands of votes just to give this seat to the PAS candidate. The elected mayor of MAN Leonid Umaneț had his seat stolen, even though he presented all the documents requested by the authorities, including his diploma. It is serious that a rerun election is being held at a time that the court is still examining appeals against illegal CEC decisions, including an exception of unconstitutionality at the Constitutional Court,” stated Ion Ceban.
