Moldovan electoral body earmarks nine million lei to organize referendum on dismissal of Chisinau general mayor

Chisinau, 26 September /MOLDPRES/ - The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has ruled to allocate 8.9 million lei to organize a local referendum for the dismissal of Chisinau general mayor Dorin Chirtoaca from office.  

The referendum will take place on 19 November 2017. At the same time, the electoral period is to start 45 days before this day.  

More than 160,000 votes are needed to dismiss Dorin Chirtoaca from post at a referendum. Also, for the plebiscite to be validated, not less than one third of those over 647,000 voters registered on lists should participate in the ballot.

Chirtoaca has been leading Chisinau since 2007; this is his third mandate in this position. The Chisinau mayor was detained by anticorruption prosecutors and officers in late last May, being suspected of influence peddling in a file on paid parkings. At the same time, anticorruption prosecutors in late August 2017 said that the mayor was prosecuted in a new criminal case, in which he is suspected of abuse of power in a file on changing the way authorizations on providing dwellings in the Moldovan capital were fulfilled.   

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor M. Jantovan)