The result of the first round of mayoral elections in Chisinau municipality wasn’t the expected one. Judging by the way in which the election campaign was conducted and by the way in which the Democrats campaigned for Silvia Radu, it was expected that the independent candidate will reach the runoffs, IPN quoted politologist Boris Shapovalov as saying in the program “”Key issue” on NTV Moldova channel.

According to him, following the praise for Silvia Radu disseminated by the media holding of the Democrats, Radu lost the citizens’ confidence. “They probably exaggerated here,” stated Boris Shapovalov. He also said that the voter turnout was lower, but this is not serious for the first round of voting. The number of participants in the runoffs is usually higher. “We can anticipate that 80,000-100,000 more voters will join in at the runoffs.”

Journalist Igor Volnitski said the candidate of the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” Andrei Nastase probably didn’t expect that the difference between him and Silvia Radu will be so great. There were a number of factors that helped Andrei Nastase to reach the runoffs. One of them is the fact that Silvia Radu was almost absent from the public sphere following her withdrawal from the post of acting mayor. The publication of a conversation between Andrei Nastase and his mother made the voters mobilize for him. “The serious mobilization of the pro-European voters was the third factor,” stated the journalist.

In the June 3 mayoral runoffs in Chisinau, Andrei Nastase will compete for mayoralty against the Socialist candidate Ion Ceban.