The investing of the Filip Government, protests, direct presidential elections after a period of about 20 years and other events marked the year 2016. At yearend, IPN News Agency presents the most important events of each of the 12 months of the year.
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Key event of November: Presidential runoff

On November 2, the Central Election Commission announced that the runoff vote will be held on November 13, two weeks after the first round of the presidential elections.

On November 7, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the reform program for Moldova, supported by a three-year Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility (ECF/EFF) arrangement. Access under this arrangement represents 75 percent of Moldova’s quota in the Fund (about US$ 178.7 million). After the IMF’s announcement, other foreign parents, such as the EU and the World Bank, unlocked financing for Moldova.

On November 11 the Chisinau Appeals Court upheld the decision of the Buiucani Court by which ex-Premier Vlad Filat was sentenced to nine years in jail. The lawyers said they would challenge the decision in the Supreme Court of Justice. This can be done by January 9, 2017.

On November 13, the presidential runoff witnessed unprecedented mobilization among the Moldovans from the diaspora. Over 130,000 Moldovans abroad voted in the elections, which is twice more than in the first round. Igor Dodon polled 52.18% of the vote, while Maia Sandu – 47.82%. The turnout of voters was over 1.6 million voters.

On November 21, representatives of the Moldovan communities in Italy, the UK, France and Ireland filed a suit against the violation of the constitutional right to vote in the presidential runoff of November 13. The national courts of law rejected the challenges of the Moldovans from the diaspora.

On November 24, 16 persons were arrested by anticorruption prosecutors on suspicion that they fixed bidding contests to purchase food products for Chisinau schools and kindergartens. It was established that spoiled and unfit products were delivered to education institutions as a result. Later, the head of the Chisinau General Division of Education, Youth and Sport Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb was suspended from post for the period of the investigation. In December the contract based on which she was named to post expired.

On November 25, the National Bank of Moldova announced that it received the third formal progress briefing from Kroll on its continuing investigation of the large scale fraud in the Moldovan banking sector. The fraud resulted in the collapse in late 2014 of Banca de Economii SA, Banca Sociala SA, and Unibank SA. The investigation has identified the misappropriation of approximately US$ 600 million. Tracing of the end destination of this amount is ongoing. Kroll has continued to trace the proceeds of fraudulent loans granted to Shor Group companies acting in concert between January 2012 and November 2014, prior to the collapse of the three Moldovan banks. Millions of dollars of the fraud proceeds were transferred to parties around the world, with the major part to bank accounts in Russia, Moldova, Estonia, and Cyprus.

Selection by Mariana Galben, IPN