The mayor general of the municipality of Chisinau criticized the Central Election Commission for its decision to request to annul the registration of Șor Party’s candidate for mayor of Bălți. “I consider the decision taken yesterday by the CEC represents abuse of power. I warn the government that these decisions set precedents and no one will hold office forever,” Ion Ceban posted on Facebook, being quoted by IPN.

The mayor said his posting does not represent support for the candidate of Șor Party, but is a signal of alarm about the far from democratic methods used by the government. “As the deputy chairman of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM), I state that this is a danger for each functionary, mayor, candidate, for each citizen who wants to state another viewpoint,” said Ion Ceban, calling on the government not to remove the people as they want and not to break the law.

For his part, expert Valeriu Pașa in post on Facebook said he is disappointed at the responsible bodies’ reduced capacity to determine the illegalities committed by electoral contestants. “I have today a bitter taste over the extremely reduced capacity of the state institutions (I do not refer to CEC, but to the police and SIS) to document the illegalities committed in election campaigns. It is clear why as their job until now was to cover the illegal financing so that this is not seen. It is distressing to see that they managed to confirm the misuse of only 150,000 lei at a time when millions of lei were illegally used in the elections in Bălți,” wrote Valeriu Pașa.

On December 1, the Central Election Commission 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.