The Party of Socialists, which is an opposition parliamentary party, considers the actions taken with regard to Șor Party’s candidate for the mayoralty of Bălți are illegal and represent an abuse on the part of the government regime. “The regime of Maia Sandu actively follows the path to state capture by the model of the odious regime of Vladimir Plahotniuc,” the party said in a press release issued after the Central Election Commission asked the court to remove Marina Tauber from the electoral competition several days before the runoff vote for the reason that she used undeclared funds in the campaign, IPN reports.
The PSRM says the regime subjugated the prosecution service, the judiciary and intelligence service and turned them into instruments for fighting the political opponents in breach of their constitutional duties, as during the time of the regime of Plahotniuc”. “In fact, many of the abuses of these institutions are committed by the same persons who served oligarch Plahotniuc and now serve the current anti-democratic regime,” runs the press release.
The Socialists call on the diplomatic missions working in Chisinau to take attitude to the main deviations from the rule of law norms and principles or an authoritarian regime that will always ignore the democratic values and the law will develop in this part of Europe, according to them.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) requested the Bălți Court to annul the registration of electoral contender Marina Tauber, who was put forward for the mayoralty of Bălți by Șor Party. The Commission determined that the candidate used undeclared financial and nonfinancial resources of at least 34,260 lei in the snap mayoral elections in the municipality of Bălți, exceeding the cap set by CEC by at least 9,514 lei. According to the rapporteur, CEC vice president Pavel Postica, CEC received complaints from former PPPDA MP Arina Spătaru; independent candidate for the mayoralty of Bălți Nicolai Grigorishin and the Bălți Police Inspectorate, which said that the financial reports of Șor Party submitted to the Commission do not contain data concerning the provision of catering services by a business entity for volunteers who campaigned for Marina Tauber. The undeclared sum amounts to 152,000 lei. Nicolai Grigorishin said he has doubts about the real cost of the parry’s electoral advertisements on social networking sites and informed about the involvement of foreign persons in the electoral campaign of Marina Tauber.
In the first round of the snap mayoral elections held in the municipality of Bălți, Marina Tauber gained 47.93% of the poll, being followed by independent candidate Nicolai Grigorishin with 20.93% of the vote. The two will contend in the runoff vote on December 5.
