The article forms part of IPN’s series to present candidates for mayor of the municipality of Balti at the general local elections of November 5, 2023.

The Political Party “Chance” fielded Victoria Șapa for the post of mayor of the municipality of Balti at the November 5 local election.

Victoria Șapa was born in the Republic of Moldova on December 2, 1986. At the age of 11, she started to practice tennis and when she was 14 she began to take part in international tournaments. In 2004, she started to study at the Moldova State University, the Faculty of Law, and in parallel worked as a tennis coach. In 2007, she immigrated to Canada together with her daughter following her parents. She worked in the building, urban planning and realty investments sectors. In 2023, she decided to join in the people who have the potential to improve the situation in Moldova.

For January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022, she declared US$25,841 earnings from Remax company. Her husband declared US$125,000 dividends from Oleg Semenov PA. The candidate has a house of 300 square meters purchased in 2021 and an apartment of 110 square meters acquired in 2019. Victoria Șapa also owns a car bought in 2022 and a 100% holding in the real estate agency Oleg Semenov PA, whose legal address is in Florida, the U.S.

The priorities set by Victoria Șapa include the extensive repair of all the roads in the municipality, laying out of parks, setting up of modern recreational spaces, building of a modern cinema in the city, implementation of a renovation program to transfer people from old homes to new houses.

The candidate also has a social program for pensioners, which envisions the provision of 1,000 lei in extra payments to older persons whose pension is lower than 5,000 lei. Among her objectives are to repair the yards of apartment buildings, to install high-quality street lighting systems, to build playgrounds and a free amusement park “NordLand” to offer a new stimulus to the realization of the city’s tourist potential, to modernize the existing preschools and build new ones, to introduce free transposon for the inhabitants of the municipality.

As the draw decided, Victoria Șapa will be next to No. 7 on the ballot.